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MMATIYE OF ANDERSONYILLE, 

DRAWN FROM THE EVmENCE ELICITED ON 

THE TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ, 

THE JAILEK. 



WITH THE AEGUMENT OF COL. N. P. CHIPMAN, 

JUDGE ADVOCATE. 

/ 

BY AMBROSE SPENCER. 




NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FEANKHN SQUARE. 

1866. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-six, by 

Harper & Brothers, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
of New York. 



hssn 



DEDICATION, 

TO THE FEW BRAVE MEN 

WHO HAVE SURVIVED THE HORRORS OF THEIR 

IMPRISONMENT AT ANDER SONVILLE, 

THIS IMPERFECT RECITAL OF THEIR WRONGS AND SUFFERINGS 
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 

Americns, Georgia, 1866. 



PREFACE. 



In placing this '' JSTarrative" before the public, I have 
no apology to make except for the manner in which the 
work has been executed. It is a source of regret to me 
that I have been unable to clothe in proper language the 
story of the great wrongs perpetrated in the Anderson- 
ville Prison. It is cause of still greater regret that I have 
been forced to repeat and publish that which it would 
have been better to bury forever from public sight. The 
choice was not permitted me, for a true narrative required 
a full disclosure of words as well as deeds to satisfy the 
demand for information of what was there done. 

The facts contained in these pages have been drawn 
from the evidence elicited at the trial of Henry Wirz be- 
fore the Military Commission appointed for that purpose, 
together with personal knowledge which a near residence 
to the spot would necessarily give. 

My object in this publication is not to minister to a 
morbid curiosity, but to place on record how outrages and 
murders have been committed under the fictitious plea 
of a struggle for independence. 

The entire evidence taken on the trial was too volu- 
minous to be given in detail, and I have therefore adopt- 
ed the style of narrative, through which I could better 
condense the facts proved. 



Viii PREFACE. 

It will be seen that free use has been made of the able 
argument of the Judge Advocate upon the trial of Wirz; 
and the author may well express his obligations to Col- 
onel N". P. Chipman for the aid he has given him, as for his 
argument, which he has made a part of his Narrative. As 
to its value, it is deemed sufi&cient to insert here the opin- 
ion of the Hon. Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, 
page 1004, Eeport of the Secretary of War, 1865-6 : 

" As it would be impossible to present, in the limits of 
a brief official report, even an abstract of the evidence 
upon this trial, a copy is herewith submitted of the argu- 
ment of Colonel N. P. Chipman, Judge Advocate, which, 
while containing a lucid discussion of the questions of 
law involved, exhibits also a most faithful summary of 
the testimony, much of which, indeed, is set forth in the 
very language of the witnesses. 

"It is submitted whether a publication of the record 
of this case (similar to that undertaken by private enter- 
prise in the instance of the trial of the assassins), or of an 
abridgment of the same, prepared by some proper person, 
may not well be authorized by Congress, not only that a 
permanent memorial of the testimony and proceedings 
may be preserved, but also that the facts of such testi- 
mony may be made accessible to every student of the re- 
bellion. 

" A peculiar characteristic of these state trials, and that 
which must invest them with a deep historical import- 
ance, is the fact that, while the accused were in each case 
adjudged to have been guilty of the crimes with which 
they were charged, the complicity in those crimes of the 
chiefs of the rebellion was declared by the court in their 



PREFACE. IX 

findings, and upon testimony which is deemed to have 
ally warranted the conclusions reached. In each case 
the proof justified the conviction that the prisoners be- 
fore the court were not merely personal criminals, but 
conspirators; that they were the hirelings and accom- 
plices of the cabal of traitors, of whom Davis was the ac- 
knowledged chief; and that these traitors were in fact 
as well as in law, equally with the accused, responsible 
for the detestable deeds which were adduced in evidence." 
With such authority to sustain him, the author consid- 
ers that no apology is necessary for inserting the argu- 
ment. Ambrose Spencer. 

Americus, Georgia, 1866. 

A2 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Introductory. — Anderson, Account of. — Climate. — The Prison and Lo- 
cation. — Howell Cobb first suggested it. — Its Architect and Build- 
er Page 15 

CHAPTER II. 

First Prisoners. — Their Reception. — Curiosity of the People. — Com- 
mandant of Prison. — A College of Girls visit it. — Episode 23 

CHAPTER III. 

Feeling of the People. — Their Hostility to the Prisoners. — Preachers. — 
Searches for Money and Watches. — Popular Huckstering 32 

CHAPTER IV. 

Change of Administration.— Appointment of Winder. — His Antecedents. 
— Fitness for the Place. — His Staff. — Son and Nephew 43 

CHAPTER V. 
Wirz the Jailer. — His early History. — Residence in America. — His Char- 
acter. — Duties as Jailer. — New Orders. — The Dead Line. — Stringent 
Regulations 65 

CHAPTER VL 
Increase of Prisoners. — Their Condition. — The Hospitals. — Precautions 
for Guarding. — Winder's Disposition of Artillery to rake the Stockade. 
— Stoneman's Raiders. — Their Robbery and Destitution 63 

CHAPTER VII. 

Routine within the Prison. — Escaped Prisoners. — Blood-hounds. — Com- 
position of the Pack. — The Story of Achuff. — Wirz on a Hunt. — 
Death of the Cripple "Chickamauga." — The Burying-ground 75 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Kindness of Confederate Surgeons.— Contributions by the Ladies.— Con- 
trasts. — Refusal of Winder to permit Aid for the Sick. — A Church- 
warden's Language. — Attempt to obtain an Injunction. — The Re- 
sult Page 85 

CHAPTER IX. 

Effect of the Injunction. — Commission to examine the Hospitals. — Re- 
port. — Counter-testimony. — Cumulative Evidence. — Poisonous vac- 
cine Matter. — Stimulants. — Provisions 99 

CHAPTER X. 

Wirz's Shooting, Beating, and Stamping. — Starvation. — Duncan. — Story 
of Hamilton. — Twenty- fourth New York Battery. — Exchanging 
Meat. — Did the Confederate Government know of these Things? 
—Proof 109 

CHAPTER XL 

Result of this Treatment on the Prisoners. — Moral Restraint destroyed. — 
Scenes within the Prison. — Wirz afraid. — Tunneling. — Robbery and 
Murder. — Executions 126 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Winter of 1864. — Its Rigor. — Personal Experiences. — Escaped Pris- 
oner. — He is saved. — Efforts of the Masons to relieve the Suffering. — 
Success 136 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The End at Last. — Peace. — Wirz in Fear. — Letter to General Wilson. — 
His Apprehension and Trial. — Constitution of the Court. — Effect of 
the Evidence.— Findings.— Order for Execution 143 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Argument of Judge Advocate. — Jurisdiction of the Court. — Reasons of 
Force. — Constitutional Argument 163 

CHAPTER XV. 

Sufferings at Andersonville.— The Stockade.— The Cook-house.- The 
Hospital.— Dr. Jones's Evidence. — Dr. Hopkins's Report 184 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Colonel Chandler's Report. — Colonel Gibbs's Testimony. — Evidence of 
Rebel Officers and Soldiers. — Condition of the Hospital Page 208 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Charge of Conspiracy. — The Law implicating Co-conspirators. — Davis. 
— Seddon. — Winder. — Intimacy of Davis and Winder 228 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Reflections on the Argument, — Findings of the Court. — Confirmation 
of the Sentence. — Order of the President of the United States. — The 
Murderer's Fate. — Tables of Mortality 265 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



CHAPTEE I. 



Introductory. — Anderson, description of. — Climate. — The Prison and Lo- 
cation. — Howell Cobb first proposing it. — Its Architect. 

The morning of the 27th of April, 1865, beamed 
brightly over the country of Southwestern Georgia as 
the rays of a glorious sun poured their genial warmth 
and life into the houses and cabins of the dwellers in that 
favored land, lighting up their hearts with a sense of final 
release from the fears that four years had almost made 
familiar to them. The same sun looked down upon a 
stockade of unhewn logs, surrounding an area within 
whose limits crouched, or crept, or staggered about ten 
thousand living men, prisoners of war. 

The chill winds of a spring night had been but indif- 
ferent companions to those whose health and constitu- 
tions had been shattered by a long confinement there, 
while they had proved beneficent protectors of the sick, 
the wounded, and the dying there crowded together. To 
the first class their scanty provision of blankets and rags 
did not avail to ward off the piercing scrutiny of the 
northeastern airs which penetrated through their skins 
and tingled in their flesh as they muttered curses upon 
the authors of their unquiet. 



16 ANDERSON VILLE. 

The others had often blessed the breezes of the night, 
that bore insensibility to pain and torture, and left them 
the luxury of senselessness, paralyzed to the conscious- 
ness of suffering; and yet that morning light and sun 
brought liberty to all of them — life to many, and the 
grateful alleviation of medicine and nourishment to the 
sick and dying. 

It was the morning of the day upon which Joseph E. 
Johnston, the leader of the remnant of the rebel army, 
had surrendered to General William T. Sherman, in com- 
mand of the United States forces. The telegraph had 
notified the land that peace had at length dawned — that 
the boon of freedom was at last granted to the wretched 
occupants of the prison upon which the beams of that 
April sun were shining. The prison was at Anderson. 
Of that stockade and its unfortunate inmates the follow- 
ing pages propose to treat. 

The little hamlet of Anderson, so called from John "W. 
Anderson, Esq., of Savannah, one of the pioneers of in- 
ternal improvements in the section where it is located, re- 
ceived its name in 1853 from George W. Adams, Esq., 
then superintendent of the Southwestern Eailroad. Its 
original name has received an addition from the Post- 
office Department, and is now known as Andersonville. It 
is situated in about latitude 82° 10' IST., and longitude 7° 
20' W. from Washington, in the heart of the richest por- 
tion of the cotton and corn-growing region of Georgia, 
upon the Southwestern Railroad, sixty-two miles south 
from Macon, and nine miles north of Americus, the shire- 
town of the county of Sumter. The population, at the 
time of locating the prison, did not exceed twenty per- 



ANDEESONVILLE. - 17 

sons. The locality is healthy, being upon an elevated 
ridge of light sandy soil, with rolling hills all around it, 
remarkable for the dense growth of pine and different 
varieties of oak. Throughout this immediate region, the 
beholder is impressed with the appearance of gigantic 
trees, towering in their symmetrical height, with their 
closely clustering stems, which form an apparently im- 
pervious obstacle to free passage or to distinct vision. 
The country is thickly settled by enterprising farmers 
and planters, while the counties adjacent to Sumter are 
noted for the fertility of the soil, as well as for the im- 
mense crops of cotton and corn which it produces. 

The climate is mild, although subject to extremes of 
both heat and cold, the temperature ranging, during the 
months of May, June, July, August, and September, to 
88° of Fahrenheit in the shade, while, with an external 
exposure, the thermometer would indicate, in the same 
months, 110°. The coldest weather of that region is dur- 
ing December and January, when the ordinary range is 
about 42°, although the mercury has exhibited a mini- 
mum of 18°, when ice of two inches in thickness has 
been made. Eain is not exceptional here, for during the 
year 1864 there were one hundred and eight rainy days, 
during which there fell 54.205 inches, while there were 
ninety-four humid or moist days. By barometrical ob- 
servations, Andersonville is three hundred and twenty- 
eight feet above tide-water. The wells, and springs, and 
clear streams in its neighborhood are remarkable for the 
coolness, pleasant taste, and crystal transparency of their 
contents, as for their abundant supply. 

Here, on the 27th day of November, 1863, W. S. Win- 



18 • ANDERSON VILLE. 

der, a captain in the rebel army, and wlio was selected 
for the purpose, came and located the grounds for a " Con- 
federate States Military Prison." The first suggestion 
for its establishment in Southwestern Georgia is due to 
Howell Cobb, at that time in command of the military 
district of Georgia and Florida. 

The accumulation of prisoners of war at Eichmond and 
Salisbury was so great as to cause serious inconvenience 
to the rebel authorities, congregated as the prisoners were 
at and near the centre of their military operations at one 
extremity of the Confederacy, exposed to recapture, and 
requiring the detail of a large force for their safe keep- 
ing. The greatest disadvantage arising from the con- 
centration of so many thousand prisoners at the seat of 
the Confederate government was the consumption of pro- 
visions destined for their army, together with the diffi- 
culty of transporting immense stores to that point, over 
single lines of roads with insufficient capacities, and for 
a thousand miles from the region where they were pro- 
duced. 'These roads were liable to be broken, as they 
ultimately were, by the Union forces, and thus the means 
of provisioning their army, as well as the prisoners, be en- 
tirely cut offi 

Under these circumstances, it was determined to estab- 
lish military prisons at points more remote from the thea- 
tre of war. A correspondence was opened between the 
War Department of the rebel government and Howell 
Cobb, then having his head-quarters at Macon, Georgia, 
which resulted in the final selection of Andersonville for 
one depot or prison. An examination was made by W. 
S. Winder of other localities, among them a place near 



ANDERSONVILLE. 19 

the town of Albany, in Dougherty County, where a bold 
and abundant spring was pointed out and examined by 
him. It is supposed, however, that the opposition of 
those holding interests near that place, coupled with argu- 
ments of its unheal thfuln ess, was sufficient to prevent its 
selection. 

Another spot, singularly formed by nature for the es- 
tablishment and erection of such a strong-hold as would 
be required for the purpose, was brought to the notice 
of the locating officer, but rejected. Magnolia Springs, 
twelve miles west of the town of Americus,was the place 
indicated. Here an ever-flowing spring, discharging six- 
ty gallons of the coldest and purest water every minute, 
in close proximity to a clear and abundant stream of 
good water, situated within a natural amphitheatre, sur- 
rounded by gentle eminences heavily wooded, seemed to 
offer all of the conditions required for such a purpose. 
This, in its turn, was also declined, and, as before observ- 
ed, Anderson ville received the choice as the site for the 
future prison. 

To the east of the railroad, distant about sixteen hund- 
red feet therefrom, upon the side of a red clay hill look- 
ing to the south, the first stakes to mark its limits were 
driven. The area, thus laid out, comprised twenty-two 
acres. At the base of the declivity there ran a small 
stream of water, about five feet in breadth and not ex- 
ceeding six inches deep, which took its rise in a swamp 
or morass about fifty feet farther to the east, and consist- 
ed of a matted, tangled growth of hay and swamp-myrtle, 
with small tussocks of grass and logs of decaying wood. 
The borders of the stream were also of a swampy, miry 



20 ANDERSONVILLE. 

character, while its course was tortuous and sluggish, and 
its water at no time fit for use ; but, as is well known in 
that country, the prolific parent of disease and death, 
flowing, as it did, from a reservoir steeped in decaying 
vegetable matter, and noisome from the taste of the 
mould through which it was filtered. A portion of this 
stream, with its generating marsh, was confined within 
the limits of the prison bounds, which also extended up 
the adjacent hill farther south, the two sides making an 
inclination toward each other with a gradual slope, and 
at their bases it ran out of the western side. It will be 
well to bear in mind the localities here given, in order 
to a correct understanding of future details, with which 
they will be intimately connected. 

When the site was definitely established, it was found 
to be covered with a thick growth of pines and oaks, 
which a good taste would have left in their natural state, 
not only as an ornament to the inclosure about to be 
erected, but as a shelter and protection to those who 
were destined to confinement there. An appreciative 
humanity would, it is thought, have been led to their re- 
tention under any circumstances. It was, indeed, sug- 
gested to W. S. Winder by a disinterested spectator of 
his preliminary proceedings, but who nevertheless looked 
forward to the possible sufierings in store for the future 
occupants of the place, that the shade afforded by the 
trees would prove grateful protections to the prisoners. 
The reply was characteristic of the man and prophetic 
of their future fate. "That is just what I am not going 
to do ! I will make a pen here for the d — d Yankees, 
where they will rot faster than they can be sent!" He 



ANDERSONVILLE. 21 

was a son of John H. Winder, of whom more will be 
said hereafter. The trees were leveled to the ground^ 
and the space was cleared, and the construction of the 
prison began. » 

A demand was made upon the planters of the adjoin- 
ing country for a portion of their able-bodied slaves — one 
man out of every four ; agents were appointed to collect 
and forward them, while Howell Cobb, as the general 
commanding the district, issued orders enforcing their 
impressment. A number amounting to about six hund- 
red was then, in a short period, gathered together, and, 
under the requisite foremen, soon had the material ready 
for erection. 

It was determined to construct the prison in the form 
of a parallelogram, of pickets composed of solid trees, 
twenty-four feet in length ; these were planted close to- 
gether, in a trench five feet deep, with the earth after- 
ward thrown up around their bases ; the tops of the pick- 
ets were roughly pointed with the axe.* 

Within the limits thus surrounded, no buildings, bar- 
racks, houses, or huts of any kind were built. The cano- 
py of the sky was the only covering. Not a tree was 
left, nor a bush, to break the sameness or diversify the 
utter dreariness of this destined and carefully - erected 
abode for brave and intelligent men. The bare hill-side, 
void of any encumbrance, lay exposed, awaiting the wea- 
ried tread of the thousands whom the reverses of war 

* At the distance of one hundred and twenty feet, another stockade of 
the same kind, but only twelve feet high, was erected as a protection for 
the inner one. The prison proper was fifteen hundred and forty feet long 
and seven hundred and fifty feet wide, after an addition had been made 
to it, which will be noticed hereafter. 



22 ANDERSON VILLE. 

would soon hurry upon its unsheltered space. From 
above, the bright burning sun could look down and 
scorch every thing its rays reached ; and as it passed in 
slow and apparently toilsome march up and over that 
bare red hill, its beams reflected from that barren surface, 
little, indeed, was left within the blank inclosure that it 
did not parch, as the cautery of its sheen blazed over the 
utter emptiness there. 

Withering as these influences would be to those who 
were to be exposed to them, no executive foresight 
looked forward to the providing of shelter or protection 
from the drenching, fever - bearing rains of that region. 
The laws which regulate civilized warfare, and demand 
kind attention for those taken in arms — which place the 
safety, life, and comfort of a prisoner of war upon the 
same broad footing as the honor of the people who hold 
him, were intentionally and cruelly disregarded. The 
heats of Georgia's suns, and the influences of its climate, 
were left to do their work upon those who were bold 
enough to court their power, and unfortunate enough to 
be exposed to their influences. 

And so the stockade at Andersonville was considered 
complete, and ready for the occupation of such as the 
fate of war should empty into its soulless confines. Its 
architect and builder, Captain W. S. Winder, of the Con- 
federate Army, satisfied that he had erected a monument 
of engineering skill, departed for Richmond. He did not 
know that he had built an exponent of cruelty, which 
would stand, for long years after he was gone, an endur- 
ing record of malevolence and barbarity — that he left 
behind him a memorial that would be a shame to the 
very country in which it was placed ! 



ANDERSONVILLE. 23 



CHAPTER II. 

First Prisoners. — Their Keception. — Curiosity of the People. — Com- 
mandant of Prison. — A College of Girls visit the Prison. — Episode. 

On the 15tli of February, 1864, the first detachment 
of Federal prisoners were received at the " Confederate 
States Military Prison at Andersonvilley It was composed 
of captured soldiers of the New Hampshire, Connecticut, 
New Jersey, and Michigan regiments of infantry of the 
United States Army. Among them were men from 
other states, while some of the nationalities of Europe 
were more or less represented. Germans, Frenchmen, 
and Irishmen comprised the larger quota of the foreign 
element, and were, perhaps, the most numerous as a class. 
Among them were two Russians, old war men, who had 
faced the storm of battle in the Crimea, and their bronzed 
faces looked as if they could face yet other storms, while 
their stalwart forms endured the pledge their counte- 
nances bore. 

This detachmentj^umbering in all eight hundred and 
sixty men, had been confined in the prisons of Richmond 
from the commencement of the war, and were captured 
at Manassas and Bull Run. Their long sojourn at the 
seat and centre of military despotism had exhausted all 
of the money or means that they might once have pos- 
sessed, and their clothing was rags, or patches of shreds ; 
their shoes, or foot-covering, the impromptu suggestion 



24 ANDERSONVILLE. 

of dire necessity. Few of these men had a coat, fewer 
still had a blanket ; now and then a torn, ragged, greasy 
overcoat might be recognized among them — emblems of 
Fortune's fickleness in that tattered crowd. Their faces 
begrimed with smoke and dirt, their long, wiry, and un- 
combed hair, exhibited, all taken together, a picture of 
want and filth strange and abhorrent. They betrayed no 
emotion, however, as, shouldering their packs of wretched 
remnants, they shufiled down from the cars that whirled 
them to their future home. The unsubdued composure, 
the defiant port, and the perfect silence which they dis- 
played, was in marked contrast with the shouts and jeers 
of the crowds of gaping spectators who saluted their de- 
scent from the train. They showed themselves men, if 
they were prisoners. 

Shouldering their meagre bundles, and falling into col- 
umn two abreast, they were marched toward the gates, 
guarded on each flank by portions of a regiment of Ala- 
bama troops, and followed by hundreds whom curiosity. 
led thither to witness their advent. The two Eussians 
before referred to were the last of the long line. It was 
a strange sight to see these veterans as they stalked to 
their prison, and strange thoughts and visions of their 
far-off land and their various fortune crowded upon the 
mind. Whatever these may have been, here they were, 
representatives of adventure it may be, perhaps willing 
seekers of a change that would bear unfavorable com- 
parison with the tyranny and hardships of their own 
country. Yet, under the flag of a Union about to be 
broken, they had yielded to their fate, and their liberty 
was exchanged for imprisonment. 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 25 

As the column passed through the gates, the veterans 
halted and looked about, and gazed upon the dreary pros- 
pect before them. One turned to a soldier at his side, 
and exclaimed, 

"Hillo! what's this?" 

"Your prison," replied the soldier, "and I reckon you'll 
stay here a while !" 

" Prison !" ejaculated the Muscovite, with scorn ; "in 
my land they wouldn't put a hog in such a place !" 

"You'd better have staid there then," rejoined Con- 
federate ; " what did you come here for?" 

" To teach you how to treat a prisoner of war decent- 
ly," said the Eussian, as he proudly limped by his rude 
guardian. 

The commandant of the post and prison at this time 
was Colonel A. W. Persons, formerly of Fort Valley, 
Georgia, and who was in temporary command of the 
Alabama regiment then stationed as a guard. The au- 
thority of Colonel Persons was not of long duration, 
but, during the continuance of his command, no special 
complaints were made by the prisoners of cruel treat- 
ment. His orders were mainly directed to the safe keep- 
ing of the prisoners and the supply of their commis- 
sariat. 

He allowed the prisoners to provide themselves with 
bushes and poles, with which they could erect arbors and 
shelters against the weather. He permitted squads to go 
out daily for the purpose of obtaining fuel, which was 
abundant near the prison ; and it is believed that, as far 
as his knowledge and experience of the requirements of 
his position permitted, he expended all the facilities in 

B 



l\ 



26 ANDERSONVILLE. 

his power to mitigate the condition in which his prison- 
ers were placed. 

But he did nothing more. He could not provide lum- 
ber to erect shelter and protection for those under his 
charge, because he did not make such representations in 
time to head-quarters of the deficiencies and necessities 
of the post as his station and duty required. He ought 
to have urged the erection of barracks, however rough, 
to shield his prisoners from the elements. He did what, 
in his experience, he conceived to be his duty — he careful- 
ly fed and guarded those committed to his care. Their 
health, their exposure, their sufferings, were not recom- 
mended to his notice in the orders which assigned him 
to the post, nor did they enter into his understanding of 
the obligations of a commander of a military prison. 
Within these limits he regarded his duty as fulfilled. 

The author wishes to be regarded, in the statements 
which he makes, as impartial and unprejudiced as his 
sentiments and near residence to the seat of the miseries 
which he must depict will permit him to be ; and he 
desires it may be remembered that he is actuated by the 
same feelings of opposition to the usurping authorities 
of the South that were well known to control him dur- 
ing the entire rebellion. But he trusts to his sense of 
what is due to every man, the opportunity of giving his 
own version of events that he controlled or associated 
with, that no unjust or partial narration may prejudice 
the minds of readers, or do injury to his humanity. 
With this view, and an unswerving intention, which his 
correspondence will show, he addressed a note to Colonel 
Persons, asking him to give a statement of his adminis- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 27 

tration of the post at Andersonville, in order that he 
might correct or modify the official accounts which the 
author had at hand. The reply which was received, and 
a subsequent personal interview, resulted in affording no 
additional information to what was within the reach of, 
and officially given to the author. He hoped that calm- 
ness and reflection would have induced a plain and unre- 
strained communication of motives and conduct, that 
must have added to the character which Colonel Persons 
enjoyed while in command of the prison. In default of 
other means of information, the Narrative will depend, 
necessarily, upon the evidence at hand. 

The arrival of this detachment of prisoners created un- 
usual excitement in the region of the prison. Daily 
crowds rushed to the stockade to look through the 
chinks of the pickets, and gaze on those within. Upon 
the adjacent hills and eminences multitudes could be 
seen staring and glowering upon the prisoners, and 
watching each motion of the unfortunate occupants. 
Women went there day after day ; forsaking more press- 
ing demands upon their time at home, and bearing their 
suckling babes upon their bosoms, they might be seen 
squatting upon the ground and gossiping, in the inter- 
vals relieving the hours with dipping snuff or nursing 
their offspring, while they knitted socks and gloated over 
the novel sight, or speculated upon the prospect before 
.them. 

( Old men and boys trudged miles to this Mecca of 
'sights to look at the "Yankees," and they loitered and 
'lounged around, while their plows stood idle in the fur- 
rows of their neglected fields, and grass was smothering 



28 ANDERSONVILLE. 

their neglected but needed crops; or, perchance, their 
ill-fed and half-starved mules stood patiently near, await- 
ing their return to work and starvation. Negroes of all 
sexes, ages, and appearance sauntered around and stared, 
with eyes turned inside out, at the ragged representatives 
of those who had marched into captivity in order to set 
them free. They shouted, and cheered, and wrestled 
with each other as in a holiday, in the exuberance of 
their glee, just as if they were witnessing the sports in 
the ring of a circus, and yelled out their choicest bits of 
wit upon the wretched men they insulted. 

Ladies, who made a boast of superior refinement and 
prided themselves upon their intelligence — who had ridi- 
culed the pretensions and fashions of the North, but aft- 
erward willingly adopted them — who deemed all the vir- 
tue and patriotism of the country centred in some unde- 
fined spot, sought the charmed precincts of Anderson- 
ville, followed by their menial attendants bearing shawls 
and baskets, to gloat over the captured prisoners, or to 
congratulate each other that their virtue was secure, for a 
time at least, from those ravishing marauders who were 
safe from their attractions. 

There was a high school — college it is called here in 
the South — for girls, that emptied its walls of its inno- 
cent but curious inmates, and in detachments, as the force 
of circumstances required, some loading the cars upon 
the railroad, others easily gliding in luxurious carriages, 
and many lumbering along in such conveyances as could 
be improvised, accompanied by the coresident and guard-, 
ian professors, hurried in expectant curiosity to the cen-, 
tre of attraction. When there, they chattered, flirted, 



1 



ANDERSONVILLE. 29 

stared, and ate their sandwiches, and took notes of what 
thej saw as themes for their next weekly compositions. 

Amid the throng Cupid came, the arch boy. His 
quiver was not well filled, for volunteering and impress- 
ment had deprived the traitor of one half of his victims. 
But his armory was not unsupplied. He shot the com- 
mandant of the post and one whom he destined as his 
mate, and with a single shaft transfixed the two. The 
first yielded up his arms; the other simpered, simply 
courtesied — both were captives. 

With others of the crowd of curious visitors, there was 
one, a young miss of sixteen, somewhat more forward 
than young ladies of that tender age are supposed to be, 
well known in the place where she lived for her strong 
secession proclivities as well as for her fair face. Fre- 
quent pilgrimages to this shrine of loyalty had apparent- 
ly satisfied the curiosity which attracted others, for her 
attentions seemed to be directed to other objects than 
those within the prison bounds, and her presence there 
was evidently a redundant offering of beauty to valor 
and misfortune. 

One day, when there was more than the usual assem- 
blage of gazers, she was observed mounting the steps 
which led to a sentinel's platform on the outside of the 
stockade, followed by a diminutive specimen of female 
Africanism. The natural black of the attendant's features 
jwas placed in vivid contrast with a snowy turban wound 
around her head, which, together with her big, rolling- 
white eyes and glittering teeth, brought out the ebony 
of her complexion to an extraordinary degree. Beckon- 
jing the dusky satellite to her side, and looking over the 



I, 



30 ANDERSONVILLE. 

top of the palisades down into the area beneath where 
the prisoners were congregated, she cried out to the poor 
fellows within, 

''Look here, Yanks!" 

Startled at the fair apparition, they all gazed up at her. 

"Do you see this nig?" she shouted, pointing to her 
follower. 

"Well, she's your sister; do you know it?" and ex- 
clamations of delight at this unexpected display of deli- 
cacy and wit resounded through the throng of outside 
admirers as the refined exhibitor slowly descended from 
her conspicuous perch. 

Thus, for many days after its first occupation, the stock- 
ade was the centre of attraction for the surrounding coun- 
try. Nor did the curiosity of the people ever entirely 
abate during the time it was inhabited, or did they cease 
to throng about it to wonder and speculate. 

The prison could now be considered as fairly initiated, 
and the absolute wants of those first sent there were sup- 
plied in so far as food alone was concerned. But yet no 
steps were taken to provide quarters or shelter. This 
neglect upon the part of the rebel authorities, of the offi- 
cer who planned and erected it, and of its present com- 
mandant, can not be excused upon ordinary grounds. 
The materials for the construction of barracks existed 
near at hand, in the superabundant timber with which 
the whole country was supplied. Cabins, or huts of 
logs, such as answer the necessities and requirements of' 
many of the inhabitants of that country, and which afibrd 
ample and comfortable abodes, might have been built 
easily and expeditiously by the negroes who raised the 



ANDERSON VILLE. 81 

stockade. But there was no necessity of resorting to this 
plan even. Mills for sawing timber were numerous in 
the immediate neighborhood of Andersonville ; one was 
established and at work, propelled by steam, when the 
site of the prison was determined upon, within sixteen 
hundred yards ; another, also driven by steam^ and which 
continued work during the entire war, was located five 
miles from that place, upon the railroad. There were 
four other steam saw-mills within twenty miles, also situ- 
ated upon the railroad, whose combined production of 
lumber has been estimated at over twenty thousand feet 
per day. 

The facilities for transportation were equal to any at 
the South, while labor, that of negroes especially, could 
be obtained without difficulty. Material, such as nails, 
was already in the possession of the authorities, and 
nothing but a willingness was wanting to provide such 
plain but necessary coverings for the prisoners as com- 
mon humanity dictated. 

This was not done then nor at any subsequent period, 
and the interior of the stockade remained, as it has been 
already described, a vast open parallelogram, whose in- 
terior was unencumbered save by the unfortunates there 
incarcerated, and who were destined to remain there, with 
thousands of others subsequently added, exposed to the 
burning suns of summer, the drenching rains of autumn, 
and the cold blasts of winter, unprotected and uncared for. 



32 ANDERSONVILLE. 



CHAPTER m. 

Feeling of the People. — Searches for Money and Watches. — Preachers. 
— Popular Huckstering. 

In a narrative of all of the circumstances and events 
connected with the treatment and abuse of the prisoners 
of war confined at this place, it has occurred to the au- 
thor that an exposition of the sentiments of the people 
who lived in its immediate vicinity would not be mis- 
placed. He is well aware of the tender ground upon 
which he is about to tread, and anticipates the strictures 
to which he will be subjected in entering upon this por- 
tion of his subject. It has long been a prevalent princi- 
ple, to which he enters his protest, that individual opinion 
is sacred from exposure, and exempt from the test of a 
public examination. This, in the abstract, may be true; 
but when that opinion operates directly so as to influence 
momentous human interests, it is liable to inquiry, and, if 
detrimental to these interests, it ought to be exposed to 
censure. 

It is not without reluctance, but still with a stern de- 
termination to do his entire duty, that the author has re- 
solved to record such opinion and sentiment. He will 
not extenuate them, for that would be contrary to his 
own sense of propriety; he cannot exaggerate them, for 
that would be impossible. It is proper that the world 
should not forget or overlook the great wrong which has 



r 



ANDERSONVILLE. 83 

been committed through the direct operation of this same 
individual opinion, and under the sacred name of liberty. 
It is right that the crimes which sprung from the prev- 
alence of opinions so bitter should be remembered, 
traced to their source and pondered, and that its tyranny 
should be guarded against. This despotism, constantly 
growing younger as it increases in age, reproduces itself 
at every epoch, but wears the same impassable, rigid face 
which it has always worn, and it can not be too critically 
examined, particularly when it paints its own portrait, 
and when the secret operation of its influence is confessed 
by the acts of those whom it has controlled. 

It is evident that the public sentiment of the country 
in regard to the prisoners at the Andersonville stockade 
would produce its legitimate effects in the exact measure 
that it operated upon the minds of the officials who had 
them under their control, and must have a greater or less 
influence over their fate. 

It is a well known peculiarity of the human mind that, 
however strong may be the sense of right, or however 
powerful the restraint that law may exercise over a man, 
there is a tendency to set aside "Both. When the feelings 
of an entire population agree with those of one holding 
almost unlimited power, it does not require an extended 
argument to prove that the preponderance of such an in- 
fluence will be the guide. 

The associations which daily intercourse between the 

officers of the post and the people of the country engen- 

] dered, the interchange of courtesies, and the unrestrained 

i communication of opinions in the streets of towns, in 

( places of business, and the free expressions uttered around 

B2 



34 ANDERSONVILLE. 

the firesides, could not fail to produce their fruits upon 
the conduct of those officers. 
^/' That the views of the people who resided near the 
prison were characteristically hostile to all who savored 
of an inclination for the Union and government of the 
United States is too patent to demand more than its as- 
sertion. These hostile feelings, however, were carried far 
beyond the mere fact of condemning those who opposed 
the war of secession; they were directed with an in- 
tensity which meets no parallel against individual actors. 
The soldiers who composed the Federal army were the 
special objects of their animadversion.. Not alone did 
the common people indulge in expressions of hate and 
vindictiveness toward them, but men of education and 
intelligence, those occupying high and leading positions, 
and especially the clergymen and preachers, availed them- 
selves of every opportunity to unleash the Nemesis of 
their unforgiving rancor. 

The captives were termed invaders, robbers, brigands, 
highwaymen, and ravishers in their addresses, sermons, 
and prayers. The people were invoked to cut them off 
and slay them tuherever rftet with, and they were held up 
to public detestation and destruction. A Federal soldier 
was a synonym for every thing that was vile, and heaven 
might be approached somewhat nearer, in their estima- 
tion, by him who aided in their taking off. 

Humanity exhibited to one of the proscribed class was 
considered as disloyalty to the government they were 
striving to erect. 

One preacher of influence in his denomination, and 
who stood forth as a shining light of religion, proved 



ANDERSONVILLE. 35 

from tlie Scriptures that kindness shown to a Union 
prisoner was treason to God ! . With such a state of pub- 
lic opinion, it is not surprising that the ofi&cers in com- 
mand at Andersonville should become infected with the 
moral poison that pervaded the community. And they 
were, as the event will prove. 

For some time before the occurrences to be detailed 
transpired, the effect of the opinions adverted to became 
manifest, and it was not uncommon to hear suggestions 
that the provisions which the prisoners consumed ought 
to be saved for the use of the rebel armies ; that shooting 
every one who attempted his escape and was caught; 
poisoning those who were prostrated by disease, to rid 
the Confederacy of their sustenance by food or medicine; 
hanging those who were mutinous, and thus, after an im- 
proved supplement to the plan of Furioso, " take them 
off in detail," and so clear the country of their presence. 
Food of the coarsest character, such as a master would 
be ashamed to dole out to his slaves, was begrudged 
them ; not that its supply would detract from what was 
required for their army, but because it was universally 
thought that the prisoners were not fit to live. 

Such was the feeling of a large, very large proportion 
of the inhabitants living in the county and country ad- 
joining the Andersonville stockade. Its practical effects 
will be noticed in their order in subsequent chapters. 

Meanwhile more prisoners were arriving, as the casual 
successes of the Confederate arms reaped their harvests. 
The trains of the Southwestern Eailroad daily poured out 
their living freight at the dejiot of war-worn, sick, and 
wounded soldiers. Buildings for the accommodation of 



36 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

the requisite officers of the post were rising up, others for 
store-houses of provisions and tools began to appear, and 
the once quiet hamlet, aroused only by the daily whistle 
of the locomotive as it passed or stopped in its current 
travel, now quickened into life with the busy stir of the 
multitudes that met there for trade, duty, or curiosity. 
Extra trains were arriving, bearing from fresh fields those 
who had fallen captives to the rebel arms, and were 
emptied into the hands and turned over to the tender 
mercies of their new jailers. 

As the guards received them, such valuables as could 
be found upon them stood but a poor chance from their 
scrutinizing eyes and prying hands, as they deftly found 
their way into the prisoners' pockets. Greenbacks and 
watches began to make an appearance where formerly 
nothing but Confederate money or empty fobs prepon- 
derated ; and that prisoner was indeed fortunate whose 
sagacity and cunning had contrived a secure hiding-place 
for either. In this early history of the prison, those well- 
conducted, nicely-contrived, and perfectly-executed sys- 
tems, which regulated like machinery all of the details 
of search and appropriation, which were so marked a 
characteristic of its subsequent management, were not 
proclaimed. It was reserved for the succeeding com- 
mander to devise those refined peculations, the fruit of 
which, instead of being generally distributed, was gather- 
ed into the private garners of its projector. Before their 
advent, and at the period of which we now treat, there 
was no organized plan to despoil the poor fellows des- 
tined to this prison. Carelessness, or a disregard to his 
own personal emoluments, had not led Colonel Persons 



ANDERSONVILLE. 37 

to provide for the spoliation of the men sent to him be- 
fore the J were conveyed to their prison. 

The consequence was, that the guard of Confederate 
soldiers searched for and seized whatever they could find 
upon the persons of the new-comers, and strange scenes 
were witnessed as the result of the scrutiny. 

On the 10th day of March three trains of cars arrived 
full of fresh captives. The platform upon which they 
were landed, not more than sixty feet long and twenty 
broad, was crowded. Around this, as guards, were sta- 
tioned one company of infantry ; but the curious specta- 
tor would have searched in vain for the full complement. 
There were some men with arms at port^ who made a 
show of doing duty ; the rest could be seen intermingled 
with the prisoners in unusual activity upon the platform. 

From the dress and appearance of the captives, it could 
be easily surmised that they were either new recruits, 
or that but a short time had elapsed since they had re- 
ceived their pay and clothing. Their uniforms were but 
little worn or soiled, their knapsacks were shining and 
apparently well filled, and their feet were shod in sub- 
stantial shoes. There were three hundred and fifty in 
all; they had been captured from the Army of the Ten- 
nessee by Bragg during his forced retreat from Mur- 
freesboro' and across the river ; and, although veterans, 
their semi-annual allowance had been given their division 
but two days before the engagement that resulted in the 
(loss of their liberty. It was evident that they were old 
stagers, and had an eye to their own interests, if they 
were prisoners. 

"I see you there, Eeb!" cried one; "come out of my 



38 ANDERSONVILLE. 

pocket, will you ?" grasping a hand that had obtruded it- 
self into the sacred precincts. " There's nothing there, 
I'll swear, so come out." 

"What are you talking of? Ain't in yer pocket," 
says Eeb. 

" Yes ye are ; now jis give up that watch, will you ?" 

"Hain't got nary watch — leastaways none o' yourn," 
he asserted in return, as he pocketed the coveted article. 

"Now, darn you!" vociferated another, "give up my 
pocket-book; I felt you when you took it." 

" I didn't," replied the accused ; " it just fell down, so ; 
and, 'sides, I hain't seen it," he muttered. " Anyways, 
you bloody raiders hev no use er sich things here." 

" If I had you the other side of Tennessee, I'd show 
you how to steal a fellow's money," rejoined the prisoner. 

" Don't tell me I stole," said Confed ; " 'twon't be good 
for you." ' 

" Well, you did," replied the soldier ; " and that ain't 
all — ^you're so used to it down here in Dixie you don't 
know when you do steal." But the anathema and charge 
produced no effect, and the porte - monnaie and its con- 
tents changed hands. 

"Give me back my shoes, there!" shouted a poor fel- 
low, who, seated upon the edge of the platform, was en- 
gaged in solacing his travel-worn feet, aggravated by a 
pair of new shoes which he had received but a short time r 
before his capture, and which he had deposited tempo- 
rarily at his side. 1 i 

" Give back them shoes !" he vociferated, as the depre- i 
dator was wending his way out of the throng with his l 
booty under his arms. ) Ji 



ANDERSONVILLE. 89 

"Who's got this man's shoes?" exclaimed another. 

"Yes, who's got 'em, I say !" shouted a third. 

" Here's a pair of old 'uns I'll give for 'em !" cried one. 

"I'll give one hundred dollars for those shoes," echoed 
another, " in a horn !" 

" I'd like to see him find 'em again !" said a barefooted 
guard, who doubtless envied the possessor of the valua- 
ble articles. 

"Yes, that's just the way of you darned fools of Eebs," 
said the despoiled one, solacing himself with his objurga- 
tion; "you haven't seen sole-leather for so long you'd 
take it off a dead nigger's foot, I'll be bound." 

" Now shut up, Yank 1 none of your gas here," replied 
one of his guardians. 

" Of course not," rejoined the undismayed fellow ; 
" you've got so much of that last article down South 
here, you don't want any more brought in for fear of 
spiling the trade !" 

"I say, Yank!" hailed one of the guard, "two coats 
is one more than the law allows; anyhow, it's one too 
many for you. Loan me that 'ere big 'un for a day or 
so?" 

" Nary loan, Eeb," returned he of the overcoat. 

"Well, I'll tell you what, I'll just take care of it for 
you till you want it again. You see, there's a set of 
darned thieves up in the stockade yonder, and you'll lose 
it sure." 

"I reckon I'll keep it," said the prejudiced owner. 

"No you don't," replied his banterer; and, so saying, 
he seized upon the coveted article, and it disappeared 
from its proprietor's sight forever. 



40 ANDERSONVILLE. 

Not often, however, did the greedy Confederates tarry 
to ask for any article they wanted, or use even the sem- 
blance of a word in order to possess themselves of the 
property of the prisoners ; and so they were deprived of 
their money, watches, and clothing before they had fairly 
entered upon the trials before them, either by systematic 
pilfering or more open robbery. There could be no 
doubt entertained of the liberality of the United States 
government toward its soldiers in its supplies of clothes 
and blankets, if the persons of Confederate soldiers and 
citizens were any evidence, for the national blue of the 
Union army was the prevailing color for negroes and se- 
cessionists every where in the neighborhood of Ander- 
sonville. If a stranger had been suddenly thrown into 
the midst of this people, and had tried to form an opinion 
of the prevalence of loyal sentiment from the preponder- 
ating hue in dress, the positions of the belligerents would 
unquestionably have been reversed, so completely had 
the two parties changed, in so far as habiliments could 
change them. The price in Confederate currency for a 
pair of pantaloons, such as was provided for the Federal 
soldiers, would have purchased an entire suit of the best 
broadcloth before the war, and yet they were as common 
in the country as the indigenous productions of sheep's- 
gray or butternut jeans. This deprivation of their cloth- 
ing was a most serious loss to the prisoners in other ways 
than through the discomfort produced, and, as the sequel 
will show, this was no small privation. The scarcity of 
materials in the Confederacy from which clothes could 
be made, the high prices demanded in the worthless, dis- 
honored currency of the country, placed the means of 



t 



ANDERSONVILLE. 41 

supplying necessities beyond the reach of most every one, 
except those known as speculators or fire-eaters, for the 
terms are convertible. 

If the prisoners had been allowed to retain such sur- 
plus as they could conveniently spare, it would have 
given them the means of obtaining such necessaries and 
supplies as the greed of gain induced the people of the 
country to sell or bartef/for every day crowds of such 
huckstering spirits might be seen with barrels and bas- 
kets of vegetables, meat, and poultry, thronging around 
the stockade and seeking opportunities to trade. Wom- 
en, who ranked at home as ladies^ and whose daintiness 
compelled the use of a carriage to transport them ten rods 
to a meeting-house, deprived themselves and families of 
flour, sugar, and molasses, to make up for sale cakes and 
pies for the Andersonville market. Their gardens were 
stripped of their produce to supply their stock in trade, 
and their household interests were suffered to go by de- 
fault that their servants might be sent with their contri- 
butions to this emporium. Nor did their profits disap- 
point their expectations. The troops on duty as guards 
to the prisoners caught the spirit of speculation, and be- 
came ready purchasers, to sell again to the captives, or 
to exchange with them for their rags and soleless shoes. 
Thus a brisk market was opened for the mercenary trad- 
ers of the neighborhood, who only aped the example set 
them by more expanded capitalists, and so another class 
was added to the hungry swarm of money -loving patri- 
ots who were engaged in dissolving the Union. 

It must not be inferred from a preceding remark that 
the scarcity in clothing material extended to the States or 



42 ANDERSONVILLE. 

to the Confederate government. Both of these, through 
agents abroad, had procured and were purchasing large 
amounts of cloth and shoes. Add to this the uncon- 
trolled resources of the government in fabricating money, 
or what passed for money, the unrestrained enforcement 
of laws for impressing, seizing, or pretended purchasing 
granted to its agents at home, to its commissaries and 
quarter-masters, of which every town contained enough 
to form a company of infantry, afforded the government 
all the supplies that it required. When this unscrupu- 
lous purchaser came into the market with his inexhausti- 
ble means and unsatisfied wants, the price of all com- 
modities rose beyond the reach of most persons, and put 
their purchase out of their power. 

To this cause was it principally owing that such great 
anxiety was manifested by the people in obtaining the 
clothes of the Federal soldiers for their own use ; not that 
the national color tallied so well with their loyalty, but 
that the coats and pantaloons of the prisoners enabled 
them to present a somewhat decent appearance in public. 



f. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 43 



CHAPTEE lY. 

Change of Administration. — Appointment of Winder. — His Antecedents. 
— Fitness for the Place. — His Staff. — Son. — Nephew. 

Toward the end of the month of March, 1864:, it was 
rumored that a change in the command of the post at 
Anderson ville was to be made, and the name of John H. 
Winder, a brigadier general in the Confederate army, was 
associated with the report. 

As over some bright plain, when the sun is passing 
downward in his western course, the shadow of a mount- 
ain is visibly projected — the precursor of its antitype, 
which holds darkness and desolation in its hand — so be- 
fore his actual advent the shadow of his influence was 
cast from the extreme limits of the Confederacy, a spectre 
menacing a sterner rule and a fiercer despotism, and more 
undreamed of death than any which mere physical agen- 
cies could ever compass. 

His coming was heralded to the Southwest by the 
"Eichmond Examiner" in these words: 

"Thank God that Kichmond is at last eid of 
OLD "Winder! God have mercy upon those to 

WHOM HE HAS BEEN SENT !" 

With such a harbinger from the last theatre of his 
service, it did not require a great amount of foresight to 
appreciate the full value of the acquisition. He made 
his appearance on the 10th day of April as commander 



ANDERSONVILLE. 

jf the post at Audersonville, and of the county of Sum- 
ter, in which it was situated. 

The change thus effected was due to several causes, not 
the least notorious of which was the fact that Winder had 
made himself so obnoxious at Eichmond, where, in his 
capacity of provost marshal and Superintendent of Mili- 
tary Prisons, he had transgressed and trampled down 
every law, usurped all the authority of his office, and 
violated every principle of official decorum. 

For these acts he was repeatedly complained of and 
reported to the Secretary of War. But he was the per- 
sonal friend and willing tool of Jefferson Davis, by whom 
he had been appointed to office and commissioned, and 
a pliant servant, whose constant access to his master's 
presence permitted him to drop his crafty insinuations 
like pebbles into his restless soul, and heap up the wa- 
ters of bitterness to their overflow ; so he held over his 
protege his protecting hand. He was too valuable an 
auxiliary to be dispensed with for venial offenses only, 
and his services could not remain entirely unemployed. 

Another and more potent reason for giving him the 
appointment was, that Winder's own solicitations effected 
what sheer necessity would have required. He sought a 
sphere of action where, unrestrained by official inquisi- 
tiveness or supervision, he could indulge his rapacity in 
reaping such pecuniary harvests as a position like this 
would afford him. 

He had left his native state of Maryland, and sought 
to better a fortune which was always bad by mixing him- 
self with the excitement that the rebellion had occasion- 
ed. Never possessing either means or position at home, 



i / 



ANDERSONVILLE. ' 45 

he thought to secure both by linking his fate with t ^ 
son. A field so promising in its yield, and so removed 
from officious interference as Andersonville, did not es- 
cape his avaricious eye, and the place was bestowed 
upon him. 

An examination of records shows that his early edu- 
cation was not deficient in these acquirements, which go 
very far to aid in throwing off the restraint which law 
and a respect for its behests demand. In the year 1818, 
John H. Winder was a cadet of the United States Milita- 
ry Academy at West Point, and while there was engaged 
in a meeting and joining in a combination against his 
superior officers. He was then barely twenty-one years 
of age, and nothing but the extreme construction ap- 
plied to his offense by John C. Calhoun, then Secretary 
of War, saved him from the punishment due to such 
misdeeds. 

Thus early did he display that disregard of necessary 
authority which became so marked a characteristic of 
his subsequent and notorious career. The curious in 
such matters will find all of the details of the case above 
referred to in '' Documents, Legislative and Executive, 
Class Y., Military Affairs, vol. ii.," published by the au- 
thority of Congress. Contemporary accounts assign to 
him a conspicuous position in the memorable riots at 
Baltimore, in which the same disposition to override law 
and trample upon human rights was pre-eminently mani- 
fest under the title of a " Plug-Ugly." Such seed, plant- 
ed and nourished in boyhood, growing up into prolific 
bearing in middle age, bore its expectant fruit at seventj?- 
years of his life, at Andersonville, in 1864 ; for future his- 



a:0 ANDEESONVILLE. 

tory must identify him witli the whole infamous machin- 
ery of persecution, starvation, and death, which he either 
originated there, or made warmly his own. 

That the power which appointed him to office must, 
from the very nature of things, have been advised of the 
antecedents of the man, can not be denied. The well- 
known scrutiny which Jefferson Davis exercised in all 
of his selections — the fact that Winder received his com- 
mission as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army 
at an early period of the war ; that he never was intrust- 
ed with a command in the field at any time during the 
rebellion ; the extreme difficulty of obtaining high ap- 
pointments from the President, all go to demonstrate the 
fact that he was supplied with rank, without a command, 
from his peculiar fitness for the work to be required of 
him. It is well known that he did not disappoint his 
master in the execution of the duties assigned to him, 
and it is doubtful if, within the limits of the so-called 
Confederacy, another man could be found so well fitted 
for the performance of the mission to which he was des- 
tined. 

With an exterior and countenance repulsive by super- 
annuation, and unsoftened by that suavity or courtesy 
of manner that marks the comity of a gentleman ; with 
a roughness of demeanor and a rudeness of speech that 
bespoke the bear instead of the officer, his presence shed 
around him an air of ungracious churlisliness, that re- 
pelled the intimacy which his position ought to have in- 
vited. Unpolished and uncivil in his manners, his speech, 
was, if possible, more ill bred. The vocabulary of invec- ]•' 
tive might have been searched in vain for a novelty in ' , 



ANDERSONVILLE. 2 4 

imprecation which was not familiar to his lips; and, as 
the oaths rolled from his tongue in the most ordinary 
conversation, a listener could well be excused for the 
manifestation of astonishment at the fertility of the gen- 
eral's language, and the varied plenitude of his maledic- 
tions. 

This is no overdrawn picture of Winder ; and if the 
shadows are dark, and the oscuro of his character is un- 
relieved by a single line of light, to him, not to his paint- 
er's charge, be laid the defect. And yet this person, so 
marked amid thousands, and so characterized by the spe- 
cial traits that shone around him, was courted and idol- 
ized by the men and women of the country most conspic- 
uous for their secession proclivities and their hate of the 
Union. To such a degree was this hero-worship carried, 
that the sacredness of a high office in the Church was 
polluted by electing him to its functions. 

In the choice for wardens and vestrymen of a newly- 
organized congregation at Americus, the priest, who con- 
trolled the election, forced him upon the members as one 
of the wardens, observing from the altar that he had 
seen him partake of the Holy Eucharist in an Episcopal 
church at Eichmond. 

The author of this successful attempt to link an emis- 
sary of evil with a holy cause — Staley is his name — has 
lived long enough to see his efforts crowned with entire 
triumph ; for by this act he blasted the prospects of a 
rising congregation by thus forcing a reprobate into their 
Yestry. 

I have been thus particular in the exposition of this 

an's attributes, for to him will be traced all of the hor- 



4 



-^^8 ANDERSONVILLE. 

rors that this Narrative will recite. It has been consid- 
ered necessary that those who favor this work with a 
perusal may learn who the agent was, and who was the 
principal in the nefarious outrages that will always mark 
this spot as one excepted in all the annals of human 
atrocity, pre-eminently superior for its unmitigated cruel- 
ty and the deaths that resulted, and for the woes endured 
by the tens of thousands of brave men who suffered un- 
der the devilish grasp of this arch-fiend of prisons, John 
H. Winder. 

"With him came his son, W. S. Winder, who was in- 
stalled as adjutant of the post; his nephew, Eichard B. 
Winder, the quarter - master and commissary; Henry 
WiRZ, " Superintendent of the Confederate States Military 
Prison at Andersonvilk^^^ the future jailer and executioner 
of his orders in regard to the prisoners ; Dr. White, as 
surgeon-in-chief, and who afterward had the management 
of the hospitals ; James W. Duncan, of New Orleans, and 
W. J. Humes, of Baltimore, who were selected as the ex- 
aminers of boxes, clothing, and pockets of the prisoners 
as they arrived, together with three police detectives, 
taken from the Eichmond experts, to spy out and report 
to him the utterances and shortcomings of the people of 
the country. The services of these latter were in con- 
stant requisition, and they proved efficient aids. 

As adjutant of the post, his son, or Sid Winder, as he 
was generally called, had charge of the execution of the 
details and military orders which applied to the troops 
on duty there as guards to the prisoners, keeping the rec- 
ords of the post, and the performance of such other duties 
as is required by military usage and discipline. In ad* 



ANDERSONVILLE. 49 

dition to this, the provost marshal was under his orders, 
and received his instructions from him. This officer, 
whose name was Eeid, a lieutenant in the army, a youth 
of about twenty-two years of age, and a supple tool in 
the hands of his superiors, may be mentioned and drop- 
ped here at the same time, as undeserving even such a 
notice as his compeers must receive. 

The adjutant was the second man in authority, because 
his relationship with the commandant secured him an in- 
fluence which his position and rank could not have given 
him ; he was the mouthpiece, legally as well as naturally, 
of his father. Sid Winder, who established and super- 
vised the erection of the prison in 1863, was about thirty- 
five years of age, rather below the ordinary size in stat- 
ure, of no prepossessing appearance, and in many charac- 
teristics resembling his sire. 

Eichard B. Winder, as quarter-master and commissary, 
held the next important position of any other, in so far 
as the opportunities for gain were offered. Through his 
hands all of the supplies passed, the clothing for troops 
and the money ; with him was the selection and appoint- 
ment of the sutlers of the post — indeed, the charge of 
every thing that related to the provisions of the troops 
stationed there and the prisoners. To him, therefore, 
must we look for those deficiencies in food which will be 
hereafter shown to have been one of the chief causes of 
suffering and death among the unfortunate men confined 
there. , 
I It was notorious that he shared a partnership with the 
sjiitler of the post and the sutler of the prison, and divided 
lirith them the proceeds of their gains. He fixed the 

C 



50 ANDERSONVILLE. 

prices of all produce, such as butter, eggs, meat, poultry, 
vegetables, every thing that the people of the country 
brought there to sell. He did more — he allowed no one 
to purchase what was thus offered until his sutlers had 
obtained all that they required ; this was, most generally, 
all that was brought to be sold. He did not fix prices 
that should be charged upon these articles by the sutlers ; 
that was left to their discretion, to the demand and sup- 
ply, and to the value of Confederate money at the time. 
Butter, for instance, could not be charged more than twen- 
ty-five cents per pound, Confederate currency, by the 
market-women who brought it there ; it was sold by the 
sutlers at one dollar and a half. 

The yield from this harvest was greatest within the 
stockade. There the first requirement was for greenhachs^ 
provided the poor prisoners' pockets had escaped exam- 
ination and robbery before they passed within the gates. 
The same article of butter, for which his partners paid 
twenty -five cents in Confederate money, was sold to a 
prisoner for one dollar in greenbacks. At this time the 
difference in value was as twenty to one ; so, what cost 
twenty -five cents in worthless paper, was sold for twenty 
times as much in United States currency to starving pris- 
oners of war. Collards as they are called in Georgia — 
colewort, a species of cabbage not maturing to a head, a 
coarse kind of greens in general use at the South, were 
put down in Quarter-master Winder's tariff at ten cents 
per bunch of three stalks ; inside the prison fi/ty cents in 
Federal money was demanded, or one dollar and a hajlf 
in the currency of the country. It does not require groat 
financial astuteness to estimate the profits upon such tran s- 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 51 

actions. All kinds of produce raised in the country was 
thus estimated and sold. 

At this period there was a law passed by the Confed- 
erate Congress prohibiting, under heavy penalties, the 
sale, purchase, or traffic in United States money, or na- 
tional currency, ^''except in cases specially autliorized hy the 
President^ It was made a test of loyalty to buy or sell, 
and it was denounced as treason against the government, 
to be punished by severe penalties ; yet into the hands 
of E. B. Winder & Co. flowed thousands of this traitorous, 
money, and, being ostracized by law and so rendered 
worthless, their losses must necessarily have been great. 
But the reader need not prepare his sympathies for this 
patriotic firm — he need not commence an estimate and 
foot up the ruin that a loyal quarter-master must have 
suffered from such transactions! He and his partners 
had a very simple scheme by which to save themselves 
from bankruptcy, and his incorruptible uncle, the gen- 
eral, from shame at the result of their financiering. They 
sold the odious greenbacks to those who knew their value 
for what their market price demanded, and by these two 
operations cleared about one thousand per cent, upon 
their labors. 

If any unfortunate purchaser of the prohibited curren- 
cy was suspected of using it for remittance to the North, 
to pay his debts contracted before the war, the same men 
who had sold him the funds, and who had received their 
pay for them, would enter a complaint in form before a 
justice of the Superior Court of the county, who resided 
"cbnveniently near the post, and the unlucky operator was 
arrested under the law, torn from his family, and turned 



52 9 ANDERSONVILLE. 

over to the tender mercies of the provost marshal, and 
by him imprisoned until the importunities, the security, 
or the money of friends could release him from his con- 
finement. 

Cases like this were of daily occurrence ; and if the 
business became dull, the detectives that General Winder 
brought out with him were set to work, and some igno- 
rant subject was inveigled into the snare which was art- 
fully contrived for him, and, while engaged in a bargain 
for the denounced money, would be arrested and marched 
off for punishment, by being mulcted in black mail, or 
confinement until the next grand jury of the county met 
to investigate his case, and probably indict him. If he 
proved to be made of pliable stuff, and sought to escape 
farther annoyance, he compromised the matter with W. 
S. Winder, the adjutant, by paying him a round sum, be- 
sides forfeiting into his lenient hands the greenbacks 
which he had obtained from his cousin ; but if the ac- 
cused was obstinate, he was at once arrested by a warrant 
granted by the convenient justice above referred to, and, 
under heavy bonds, awaited the issue of his trial. 

The records of the court of Sumter County yet exhibit 
numerous indictments which were found for violating 
this law of the Confederacy, when the defendants had 
proved too contumacious for the manipulations of the ad- 
jutant. 

One case may be cited as an instance and proof of all 
others. An Israelite, not entirely '' without guile" on the 
question of good money, was approached by one of these 
detective harpies of General Winder's, and induced to go 
up to Andersonville, where the victim was told in great 



ANDEESONVILLE. 53 

confidence that lie could purchase any quantity of the 
coveted greenbacks from the sutler. Arrived there, they 
entered the store, the door was closed and locked, and 
the transaction began. Twenty-five for one was asked 
and given ; the national currency safely deposited in the 
purchaser's pocket, the loyal money placed in the sutler's 
till. Just at this critical moment a signal cough was 
given, a body was projected through an open window, 
the Jew was in the grasp of a detective, and was marched 
off to the provost marshal's, and by him sent to the guard- 
house. For three days the prisoner suffered durance, 
when he at last succeeded in gaining an interview with 
Adjutant Winder. The result of the conference was 
that he gained his liberty, but he paid into that officer's 
hands the three thousand dollars of disloyal money which 
he had purchased from R. B. Winder's sutler, with two 
thousand five hundred dollars of Confederate currency in 
addition, and then went his way to his home, a poorer 
but certainly a wiser man. He had been taught a lesson 
in cent per cent, by a Gentile which excited his wonder, 
if it did not arouse his envy at the skill displayed. That 
this and similar transactions were ^^ sijecially autliorizedhy 
the Presidenf the author is not informed. 

The stern integrity of General Winder was carried to 
such an extent that any person who fell under his sus- 
picions as dealing in the contraband currency was ex- 
posed to the whole fury of his amiable wrath. One gen- 
tleman of high social position at Americus, esteemed for 
His moral worth and business character, but who labored 
under the misfortune of having been born north of Ma- 
son and Dixon's line, although he had resided for many 



54 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

years at the South, visited the stockade one day to satis- 
fy himself of the reports in relation to the treatment of 
the prisoners. He was met by the general with an ex- 
pressive objurgation and query of what he was doing 
there. The gentleman mildly replied, and told him his 
reasons for visiting the place — mildness of manner and 
the extremest courtesy of speech was a characteristic 
with him. He was informed, with a battery of oaths, 
that he was not only a d — d Yankee, but that he was 
suspected of dealing in greenbacks ; that he had better 
look out; and, with an oath that fairly made his hair 
stand on end, was ordered to depart the charmed pre- 
cincts. 

These details are considered necessary, as having an 
important bearing upon, and connection with, this Nar- 
rative of the Andersonville Prison. They show the out- 
er life and practices of those assigned to duty there as 
important of&cers and high in the confidence of the Con- 
federate authorities, and they are regarded as links in 
the chain which bound, and ground, and cankered the 
life and flesh of those incarcerated there. It is supposed 
that a better insight into the characters of those intrusted 
with such great interests will be thus given than by mere 
statements. They are parts and parcels of the stupen- 
dous fraud and wrong which culminates in the person 
of the jailer of the prison, Henry Wmz. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 55 



CHAPTER Y. 

Wirz the Jailer. — His early History. — Residence in America. — His Char- 
acter. — Duties as Jailer. — New Orders. — The Dead Line. — Stringent 
Regulations. 

This individual, since become so fearfully notorious as 
one of the principals who dealt out with an unsparing 
hand all of the horrors of disease, pollution, and death to 
captives of war, was a native of Switzerland. He was 
born at Zurich in the year 1822, and emigrated to Amer- 
ica in 1849. When he landed in the United States to 
seek a home among its citizens and protection under its 
laws, he was unable to speak a word of our language, but, 
having some knowledge of woolen manufactures, he ob- 
tained employment in a shawl factory in Lawrence, Mas- 
sachusetts. Here he remained for some years, when he 
emigrated to Louisville, Kentucky, and became %_ clerk or 
attendant to a homoeopathic physician* where he acquired 
the information upon which he subsequently practiced. 
From Kentucky he removed to Louisiana, and com- 
menced his career as a physician, offering his services to 
the plantations of the section where he located. 

When the war broke out he became a violent partisan 
of the rebel cause, and first turned up as a clerk of the 
Libby Prison at Eichmond. Here his acquaintance with 
John H. Winder first began, and through him he obtain- 
e|d his commission as captain, and was placed on his staff 



56 ANDERSONVILLE. 

as assistant adjutant general. As a deputy provost mar- 
shal, lie was sent on an inspecting tour in the year 1862- 
3 of the prisons and prisoners throughout the South. In 
the summer of the latter year he was deputed by Jeffer- 
son Davis, at the instigation of Winder, to carry secret 
dispatches to the rebel commissioners, Mason in England, 
and Slidell in France, and to the financial agents of the 
Confederate government in Europe. He returned in Jan- 
uary, 1864, and soon after, in the train of his benefactor 
Winder, he came to Andersonville with him, and was 
placed in immediate charge of the prisoners there con- 
fined as "Superintendent of the Confederate States Mili- 
tary Prison at Andersonville." 

The appearance and physiognomy of Wirz was neither 
attractive or interesting save by its repulsiveness. In 
height he was five feet eight inches, with a slender weaz- 
ened form, stooping shoulders, and emasculated gait. His 
features were pinched and disagreeable, rendered more 
unpleasing by a light gray eye, surmounted by a heavy 
protruding brow, restless, unfixed, and incapable of a 
manly, self-sustained look at the person with whom he 
happened at the time to be conversing. His low, retreat- 
ing forehead, with head of small size, displayed a greater 
amount of animal than intellectual nature, and was a fit- 
ting apex to one destined hereafter to become so noto- 
rious. 

To Wirz, as superintendent, was committed the entire 
charge of the stockade and its inmates. His reports, 
whenever they were made, were always to General Win- 
der, without passing through the hands or office of tho 
adjutant, while his orders were sent direct to him, with- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 57 

out the interposition of any other officer. Between Gen- 
eral Winder and Wirz there was always the most cordial 
understanding ; and while there were bickerings and re- 
proaches that marked the intercourse of the commanding 
officer and his son, the adjutant, a contrast was exhibited 
in the steady, unruffled flow of official relations between 
these two. 

His assumption of duty was marked by a radical change 
in the guarding, feeding, and treatment of the prisoners 
under his charge, and a corresponding change for the 
worse in their condition. "Worse, for there was a degree 
in human suffering and human misery yet lower than 
they had reached that his keen appreciation had marked 
out for them. 

To the reader, sitting, it may be, surrounded by the 
comforts and conveniences of civilized life, the idea of 
grades in human wretchedness, where it was already re- 
duced to a grossness that was merged into bestial, is not 
probably intelligible. When told that men bred to the 
comprehension and enjoyment of the same comforts as 
themselves, and who had proved their manhood amid the 
roar and carnage of battle-fields, were penned up within 
an open inclosure, exposed to the varying elements, with- 
out shelter, save such as burrows and holes in the ground 
could affi3rd, and with filthy, noisome water to drink, and 
insufficient food to eat, it may not be conceived that there 
was a lower degree still of human misery yet to be at- 
tained — that the lowest had not been reached in the scale. 
§uch must not be surprised to learn that there were 
irithin the means of Wirz a compass so immeasurably 
elow their conceptions that the index on the scale of 

02 



58 ANDERSONVILLE. 

comfortless torture could vibrate without a check while 
the fertile brain of the new jailer could invent plans to 
chafe the suffering or madden the disconsolate wretches 
there. 

The first invention of his genius was the erection of 
the dead line. Before his advent, the prisoners had been 
permitted access to the sides of the stockade to converse 
with those visitors whom curiosity or business brought 
to the outside. In order to prevent this practice, posts 
three feet high were planted ten feet apart, and thirty feet 
within and from the stockade, upon which was pinned 
a railing extending all around the inclosure. Notifica- 
tion was given the prisoners by Wirz himself that no 
one should pass beyond this barrier under pain of in- 
stantaneous death to him who should transgress. The 
sentinels upon the exterior platform were imperatively 
ordered, each time the relief was placed on duty, to be 
vigilant in detecting and shooting, without warning, the 
unlucky violator of this line of life and death. It was 
not necessary to call forth the murderous bullet that the 
entire person should be exposed or beyond the assigned 
limits. The protrusion of an arm to dip up water from 
some spot more undefiled than another, the reaching un- 
der to snatch a worthless rag which a breeze had borne 
beyond the reach of its proprietor, or the half-exposed 
body of a prisoner whom a struggle with his mates had 
forced out of the prescribed limits, were enough to secure 
the shot of the sentinel and the death of the transgressor. 

With grim cunning, he had so placed the railing that 
a portion of it crossed or intruded upon the little stream 
which entered from one side and furnished water for the>. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 59 

prisoners. And this point was where the water was 
deeper and purer than at any other part of its course, 
and necessarily more inviting to the thirsty palates who 
hankered for it. To reach this water the dead line must 
be obtruded on — to do this was death. 

In the almost torrid heats of a Southern summer, with 
a sun pouring down his burning rays that literally blis- 
tered the skin exposed to them, with a foul and putrid 
stream of water to supply the demands of a thirst that 
could not be assuaged, but almost maddened the martyr 
to its torments, there was reserved one spot less noisome 
than any other, and whose tempting waters beckoned to 
their enjoyment. But the malignity of Wirz had inter- 
dicted that spot by death ! The sufferings of Tantalus 
were real enjoyments compared with what these prison- 
ers endured, for he was cooled by the flowing tide even 
to his throat, but they burned to their vitals with con- 
suming thirst, and their parched bodies were uncomfort- 
ed by even a dip into the coveted element. 

At this fated spot the ghosts of many poor fellows went 
shrieking their death-gasp away over those filthy waters 
as their emaciated forms sought a temporary refreshment 
nearer to their source. 

The illustration conveys but a meagre idea of the 
temptation offered, or of the heartless penalty affixed for 
him who should risk its acceptance. 

It is the proper place here to state that all of the dis- 
positions made for the guarding and safe-keeping of the 
prisoners, the amount and kind of rations issued to them 
— every thing, indeed, which concerned those within the 
jstockade, emanated from Henry Wirz, who was responsi- 



60 ANDEESONVILLE. 

ble to his superior officer for them. The reader is re- 
quested to bear this in mind. Winder was chief of the 
post of Anderson ville. To his subordinates was allotted 
their respective duties, under the general instructions al- 
ways issued and usually understood by military men. 
To the subordinates of this post the same orders were 
given, and it was understood that they would not be held 
responsible for any dereliction, provided only that they 
kept themselves within a liberal construction of very in- 
definite rules, but, above all, that they " looked upon the 
Yankees like so many d — d Wahoes."^ 

But to Wirz special orders were given, and posted in 
writing at the gates of the prison and at the office of the 
provost marshal. They are as follows : 

" Orders No. 9. 

" Head-quarters, Confederate Military Prison,") 
Andersonville, April 12, 1864. ) 

" Captain Henry Wirz is assigned to the superintend- 
ence and management of the prisoners at this post, and 
will take charge of their custody. 

" Supplies for their maintenance will be issued only 
upon his requisition and under his orders. Passes to 
visit the stockade will be granted by him alone, and all 
arrangements connected with its interior will be control- 
led by him. 

"Captain Wirz will report directly to these head-quar- 
ters. By order of 

"John H. Winder, Brigadier Greneral. 

" W. S. Winder, Assistant Adjutant General." 

* Winder's verbal orders to Wirz, April 15. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 61 

From, this it will be seen that the entire control of the 
prisoners was devolved upon Wirz, reporting only and 
directly to the general in command. It may be asked 
by those more conversant with military affairs than the 
author pretends to be, why such unlimited powers were 
granted to one man by him who was appointed to the 
duty by his superiors. The question can be answered 
but by assigning as a reason the results that flowed from 
thus transferring authority. It may be that age, which 
was telling with unmistakable marks upon the form of 
the superior, was willing to delegate cruelty and murder 
to a ripe maturity which could compass both ; or, per- 
haps, the cunning that a nearer view of his grave in- 
duced wished to shift a responsibility he was unable to 
bear. It may be that ulterior views of profit in the ad- 
ministration of his commandery led him to think that 
his time would be required in looking after his personal 
interests, and in hoarding the rich harvests which son 
and nephew would reap from such a well-cultivated field. 

Whatever the intention may have been, it is certain 
that one portion of his power was delegated, and his 
mind was freed from the care which its duties involved, 
and left to riot in such forms as he chose to assume. 

In any event, the management and control — the life 
and death of the Federal prisoners at Andersonville were 
committed to their superintendent and manager, Henry 
Wirz, who acquitted himself of his delicate charge as be- 
came the new instances that have been given, and which 
marked his iron reign. It is not out of place to say here 
that Wirz often asserted, during his supremacy, that he 
aione was responsible for the management of the prison- 



62 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

ers, and if any blame attached he was willing to bear 
the brunt of it. 

He did bear the brunt, alas ! but in a different form 
from what, in his assumed safety, he had boasted. His 
ghost and the spirit of his general have -doubtless com- 
mingled ere now in other spheres, and it is not unfair to 
suppose that, if disembodied essences can feel the poign- 
ancy that tortures a mortal, repentant tears have been 
shed by the twain enough to wash from their souls the 
blood of more than ten thousand starving victims. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 63 



CHAPTER YI. 

Increase of Prisoners. — Their Condition. — The Hospitals. — Precautions 
for Guarding. — Winder's Disposition of Artillery to rake the Stockade. 
— Stoneman's Raiders. — Their Robbery and Destitution. 

The month of May has now arrived — a month which 
in this latitude is especially trying upon those who are 
unaccustomed to its peculiarly enervating influences, and 
where the mean of the thermometer is 80° in the shade. 
The eastern winds come laden with their burden of lan- 
guor, relaxing the energies, debilitating the strength, and 
blunting the edge of effort even to those accustomed to 
their effects. The sun, gathering renewed power after his 
hibernal impotence, pours down his rays, and forces into 
premature being the buried seeds of life and death. The 
germs of disease, which have lurked unregarded, perhaps 
unsuspected in the human system, are quickened into a 
fatal growth, and in this season of almost spontaneous de- 
velopment they sprout with a rapidity unknown in high- 
er latitudes. 

The prisoners felt the sickening influences, and, yield- 
ing to their empire, drooping under their grasp, they be- 
gan to surrender and die. And now, for the first time 
since the organization of the prison, a hospital was organ- 
ized. This term is used, in the absence of any other, to 
designate a receptacle for the sick and diseased who could 
njbither stand up nor live within the prison bounds ; but 



64 ANDERSONVILLE. 

it is not intended to convey the idea of protecting shel- 
ter, comfortable cots, soft blankets, or nourishing food, 
which are the generally understood concomitants of such 
establishments. It was organized as the result of sheer 
necessity, not from motives of humanity. The shelter 
at first was heaven's canopy, subsequently pine boughs, 
and finally ragged tents. The cots upon which emaci- 
ated and diseased forms were to repose and seek relief 
were holes worn into the ground by the wretched pa- 
tients as they writhed in pain or rolled in the paroxysms 
of fever ; the blankets consisted of such vermin-infested, 
ragged clothing as the rapacity of their captors had left 
them ; the nourishing food was a piece of bread two 
and a half inches square, composed of corn and cow-peas 
ground together into meal, with a small piece of fat ba- 
con. Upon such sustenance sick and dying patients 
were nourished — thus nursed and protected. And now 
Death was busy. Deputing other agents to the superin- 
tendence of battle - fields where they gathered mighty 
harvests, he presided at this chosen spot, and reaped the 
fruits which inhumanity had planted for him. The hec- 
atombs which were daily offered up to the destroyer did 
not for a moment arrest the course which his prime func- 
tionary, Wirz, had marked out and still persisted in. 

Dr. Joseph White, a surgeon upon Winder's staff, had 
control of this hospital, under command of his superior, 
and after him Dr. E. E. Stevenson was the medical director. 
The details of occurrences, of deaths, of filth, and of starv- 
ation in this place are too repulsively shocking to be em- 
bodied within these pages, or to meet the public eye in 
all their naked specifications, and the author is ready to 



ANDEESONVILLE. 65 

regret the task which he has undertaken, and to throw 
down the pen in disgust at what is before him. A stern 
determination, however, urges him forward as he reflects 
that it is due to the truth of a history yet unwritten that 
these repugnant facts should be made known, not to pur- 
vey to a morbid feehng of curiosity or a taste for the 
horrible, but as portions that go to make up the history 
of a momentous event. It will be the aim of the author 
so to prune off and shape his materials as to shear the 
loathsomeness of the details of their most offensive parts, 
that the general reader may preserve his sensibilities 
from too rude a shock in their perusal. 

It is in evidence from every Confederate surgeon who 
has been examined that the filth and destitution of the 
patients was of the extremest character. Dr. John E. 
Bates, who was on duty there, says that when he first en- 
tered a ward of the hospital he was shocked. Men were 
lying partially naked, dirty and lousy, in the sand, wast- 
ing under gangrene, putrid from fever-sores, and literally 
dying from starvation, crowded together in small and 
unserviceable tents. They asked for a teaspoonful of 
salt ; they begged for some of the siftings of meal ; they 
even entreated to be allowed to gnaw a bone as they lay 
in their filth, destitute of medical attendance as of every 
thing else. They were suffering with scurvy, dropsy, di- 
arrhoea, gangrene, pneumonia, and almost the entire cat- 
alogue of diseases, while the effluvium from the hospitals 
was sickeningly offensive; and if by any accident the doc- 
tor's hands were abraded, he refused to go into his ward 
without properly protecting them from contagion. 
•' The systems of the patients were so reduced by in- 



66 ANDERSONVILLE. 

action and disease, that if by any miscliance the hand 
should be scratched or a wound created, gangrene would 
immediately supervene. One of his patients, a prisoner 
of but sixteen years of age, was down with both gan- 
grene and scurvy. He talked of and cried for his absent 
mother, and prayed for her tender hands and gentle care 
to soothe his anguish or dress his sores, and as he moved 
his restless, emaciated body, seeking a repose that was de- 
nied him, the sand would rub into his sores and disfigure 
the very pollution which was destroying him. Although 
it was against specific orders to give the patients any food 
or what might help their condition, yet the doctor now 
and then smuggled into his little patient's hand a potato 
or a biscuit to appease his ravenous hunger ; but, not- 
withstanding, to use the witness's simple but heartrend- 
ing words, "/«s soj^es gangrened^ and, tuJiat luith the scurvy 
and want of food, and from lice, he diedP'' 

The scurvy was next to rottenness. Many of the pa- 
tients could not eat because there was no mastication ; 
their teeth were loose, and they were constantly asking 
him for something to eat that would not cause pain. 
The rations for the sick were less than twenty ounces for 
the twenty-four hours — not enough to keep a man alive, 
especially if the food was " monotonous" and consisted of 
but few articles; many starved to death on account of 
the unwholesomeness and paucity of the rations. Dur- 
ing this enactment of horror the medical director mani- 
fested no interest in the relief of the necessitous, but, as 
was proved, entertained his visitors at his quarters with 
choice viands, and placed before them copious draughts 
of the whisky that had been provided for his rottinp^, 
dying patients. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 67 

Dr. William Balser, an assistant surgeon at Jackson- 
ville, Florida, gave his experience of the climax of this 
"treatment of patients" after they had been definitely re- 
leased from their prison. He attended a large number 
of the cases from Andersonville, and gave a graphic but 
sickening account of their horrible condition when they 
came into his hands. The larger portion of them were 
mere skeletons. Of three thousand three hundred re- 
leased prisoners, there were not two hundred who did 
not require medical treatment, and not one half of those 
who survived would ever be fit to resume their former 
occupations. Some of those afflicted with the scurvy 
were idiotic, while bones had to be removed from the 
jaws and other parts of the bodies of the sufferers. 

Such is an eliminated statement of the condition of the 
hospitals and the treatment of the inmates at this period. 
In due chronological order we must recur, however un- 
willingly, to. these receptacles again. 

But Wirz, the superintendent, was not idle, for day 
after day he could be seen riding upon his well-known 
pony into the shambles which he controlled, or to the 
trenches which he had ordered dug, where his victims 
were hurriedly deposited " after life's fitful fever was 
over," their winding - sheets a basketful of quick-lime, 
their only requiem the oaths of the man who superin- 
tended their burial. He was, indeed, " doing more than a 
dozen regiments at the front P'' 

By the end of the month the number of prisoners 
amounted to eight thousand nine hundred and fifty, but 
before it was expired their number was swelled up to 
njineteen thousand. On some days the railroad would 



68 ANDEESONVILLE. 

be blocked up with trains loaded with captives of war 
destined for Andersonville. The condition in which 
they arrived was deplorable enough. They had passed 
the ordeal of search and plunder by their original cap- 
tors ; they had to run the gauntlet of the swarms of ra- 
pacious guards who accompanied them to their destina- 
tion ; but now they had to pass the critical examination 
of their future jailer, whose keen scent could not well be 
avoided, and when they left his hands his satellites as- 
sumed the privilege of picking what was left. By the 
time they passed within the gates of their prison, a scav- 
enger would have been poorly repaid for a search among 
what yet remained to them. 

The numbers now congregated within the inclosure 
were so great as to induce increased circumspection on 
the part of Wirz in guarding them, because, if they had 
been aware of the fact that the mere exercise of their own 
unaided physical force was sufficient to have burst the 
barriers that confined them, they would doubtless have 
effected their liberation. Wirz was afraid of this, and 
also afraid of mutiny, and he employed all the means that 
his ingenuity could suggest to prevent the one or to sup- 
press the other. He instituted a system of punishments, 
the most efiicacious of which, in his estimation, were the 
stocks and the chain-gangs. The former were a rude 
but improved imitation of those in use more than a cen- 
tury ago. They were constructed of a heavy frame-work 
of timber six feet in height ; at the top a two-inch plank 
was arranged so as to be opened, with a hole, one half of 
which was contained in the upper and the other half in 
the lower and stationary plank, the circumference of the 



A^^)ERSONVILLE. 69 

hole being the size of a man's neck. The upper plank- 
being raised, the neck of the culprit was inserted, the 
board was lowered and fastened, and the prisoner se- 
cured If Nature had given sufficient altitude to the 
sufferer, he could stand upon his feet without danger of 
being choked ; but if, unfortunately, his stature was un- 
der the limit, he could only mitigate the torture of his 
punishment by touching his toes to the ground, and thus 
give himself some relief 

Often five and six men could be seen standing or 
reaching through the apertures, their heads protruding 
on the other side, and exposed to a scorching sun for six 
hours; and frequently the poor wretches would faint 
from exhaustion before the terms of their punishment 
had expired, or, when released, would sink down in a 
swoon, and be borne back to their prison. 

It will scarcely be credited that one poor fellow was 
taken from the hospital^ by Wirz's orders, for some trivial 
offense, borne by two men to the stocks, where he was 
left until death, more merciful than his jailer, relieved 
him from his sufferings in one hour. 

The chain-gang was another contrivance to punish 
and humiliate the manhood of his defenseless prisoners. 
Sometimes ten men could be seen, each one with a heavy 
chain passed around his neck, crossing behind his back, 
and united in front to another, which was connected with 
hand-cuffs on the wrists and by another chain, attached 
to a thirty-two-pound iron ball, which dragged upon the 
ground. Two and three weeks was the ordinary limit 
of this species of punishment, the victims meanwhile 
being exposed to sun and rain, and limited to one half 
their usual scanty rations. 



70 ANDERSONVILLK 

The refinement of his cruelty in devising punishment 
consisted in the foot-stocks, constructed somewhat similar 
to those above described for the neck, but intended for 
the confinement of the ankles. Seated upon the ground, 
his limbs elevated at an angle of about forty degrees, the 
feet were firmly locked between two boards, and the pris- 
oner was forbid to rest his wearied body by reclining at 
length upon the ground ; if he attempted this he was pun- 
ished with stripes by the guard, or liable to a bullet from 
the ever-ready revolver of Wirz himself, should he pass 
by and find the sufferer in this position. 

To complete his precautions for the safe-keeping of his 
charge, or to quell any disposition to revolt, he had placed, 
through General Winder's orders, a battery of six pieces 
of artillery, which commanded the whole interior of the 
prison, and which was kept charged with grape and can- 
ister, ready for instant service. The orders to the ofiicer 
in command were to "sweep the stockade" if there was 
any appearance of mutiny, or any unusual crowding to- 
gether of its inmates. 

The artillerists were on duty night as well as day, and 
were relieved at their guns as regularly as were the cus- 
tomary sentinels on guard. The position of the battery, 
upon a hill and overlooking the prison, while it com- 
manded its whole interior, was such that, if the order had 
ever been given to fire, its hurtling grape would have 
borne death and desolation to many thousands. 

When General Kilpatrick, of the Union army, was ex- 
pected to advance in his raid as far as Andersonville, the 
following order was issued. It is given here, out of its 
chronological order, to show the animus of all concerned 



ANDEESONVILLE. 71 

in the administration of the government of the prison, 
and as evidence of the precautions taken to prevent the 
release of the prisoners : 

• '' Orders No. 13. 

"Head-quarters, Confederate States Military Prison, | 
Andersonville, July 27, 1864. > 

" The officer on duty and in charge of the battery of 
' Florida Artillery' at the time will, upon receiving no- 
tice that the enemy have approached within seven miles 
of this post, open fire upon the stockade with grape-shot, 
without reference to the situation beyond these lines of 
defense. 

" It is better that the last Federal be exterminated than 
be permitted to burn and pillage the property of loyal 
citizens, as they will do if allowed to make their escape 
from the prison. By order of 

"John H. Winder, Brigadier General. 

" W. S. Winder, Assistant Adjutant. General." 

It is not out of place to remark here that, upon the 
promulgation of this sanguinary and barbarous order, a 
citizen of Sumter County, and an arch-secessionist, who 
happened to be with the militia force called out by the 
Governor of Georgia for the defense of Andersonville, 
remonstrated with General Winder against its inhumani- 
ty. The reply was, " Sir, I will kill the last d — d Yankee 
in that stockade before Sherman or Kilpatrick shall re- 
lease them ! God d — n my soul if I would not rather 
see those twenty thousand scoundrels blown to hell than 
go, to heaven myself!" 



72 ANDERSONVILLE. 

No comment is made upon this reply except that the 
author was extremely reluctant to transfer Winder's ex- 
act words to his pages, and only consented because they 
exemplified so completely the spirit which actuated him 
both as a warden in a church and a commander intrusted 
with the fate of men of the same mould as himself. 

"We will return, in point of time, to an extraordinary 
accession of prisoners which now took place. 

The result of General Stoneman's efforts to penetrate 
into Georgia, his defeat and capture, his imprisonment at 
Macon, and his subsequent exchange, is matter of history, 
and belongs to another recital. But with his men, or at 
least a part of them, who composed his command, it is 
now the duty of the author to treat. Stoneman's ad- 
vance had not only been anticipated, but it was thought 
to be provided against ; and, strange as it may sound to 
military men, a hastily collected, badly armed, and worse 
drilled militia effected the capture. The news of the un- 
expected success spread like the reports of Fame of old, 
and eager crowds from miles around rushed to the prison 
to witness the arrival of the captives. 

Four trains of cars successively came loaded down with 
the men who were destined to play such a conspicuous 
part in the drama which was to be enacted at this place. 
Especial care had been taken by the authorities to receive 
them, and the cars were stopped some distance above the 
usual halting - place, while extra guards were stationed 
around the spot. 

As each train arrived, squads of ten men were taken 
into a detached building near by, where Wirz, E. B. Win- 
der, and W. S. Winder were assembled. There each man 



ANDERSONVILLE. 73 

was searched by Duncan and Humes, was stripped to his 
shirt, if he possessed one, his shoes were closely scrutin- 
ized and the soles examined, and the shoes themselves 
appropriated if they were found worthy ; the linings of 
the waistbands were inspected ; of course the pockets of 
the pantaloons were turned inside out and their contents 
appropriated. The proceeds derived from this search 
were turned over to Wirz for temporary deposit, after- 
ward to be divided fairly. 

The squads were then turned over to the sergeants of 
the guard, and such miscellaneous articles as their supe- 
riors did not require, or did not deign to take, were ap- 
propriated. Thence they were passed to the outside 
guard to be marshaled into procession for the prison. If 
these last harpies found any thing upon the persons of 
the prisoners worthy pf their regard, it was incontinently 
taken, and, by the time the poor wretches formed into 
column, the regiment that Falstaff once raised would have 
shone in comparison with these. 

"When they at last reached the stockade and were 
turned into the gates, the remnants that were left to them 
by the rapacious crew through whose hands they had 
passed were not sufficient to cover their nakedness. But 
there was slight comfort left the poor devils in the reflec- 
tion that they were no worse off than the twenty thou- 
sand who had preceded them into this Gehenna of earthly 
misery, and none of these could boast themselves of be- 
ing possessed of more than themselves. 

The picture is but faintly drawn, as the author most 
willingly confesses ; for there are such demands upon his 
pencil that the hand wearies, and the natural tints that 

D 



74 ANDERSONVILLE. 

he has taken fresh from the palette fail to spread them- 
selves upon his canvas at his bidding. If by one dash 
of his brush he can depict the trophies secured on this 
memorable occasion, he will do so by saying that two 
carpet or traveling sacks were filled with watches, gold 
and silver, daguerreotypes, and miniatures taken from 
these prisoners. And, by a strange consistency of events, 
even while the trial of one of the principals in this trans- 
action was occurring at Washington in 1865, a police de- 
tective captured from a man, a friend of E. B. Winder, 
on board of a James Kiver steam-boat, the two identical 
sacks with the watches therein. The amount of green- 
backs obtained will never be known ; but, if surmise may 
be allowed its range, and judging from the brisk trade 
that followed this foray upon the pockets of the captives, 
it was not a small one. 

If the unsuccessful raiders had accomplished nothing 
else in their hazardous enterprise, they may now have 
the satisfaction of knowing that their advent to Ander- 
sonville opened a trade in disloyal currency which fully 
satisfied the avaricious cravings of those who reaped the 
greatest profits from the transaction. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 75 



CHAPTER VII. 

Routine within the Prison. — Escaped Prisoners. — The Blood-hounds. — 
Composition of the Pack.—The Story of Achuff.— Wirz on a Hunt. 
— Death of the Cripple "Chickamauga." — The Burying-ground. 

The prisoners were divided into messes or squads of 
about ninety men, under the charge of a sergeant or oth- 
er non-commissioned officer, who paraded them daily, that 
the rolls might be called and the absent noted. The ra- 
tions for one day generally consisted of two ounces of 
bacon, a sweet potato when in season, a piece of bread 
two and a half inches square, composed of corn and cow- 
peas ground together into meal and unsifted. 

If, at roll-call, any of the squad did not answer to their 
names, and no satisfactory reason could be assigned for 
their absence, particularly if any had made their escape, 
the rest of the mess were usually deprived of their rations 
for twenty-four hours or longer, as the case might be, 
notwithstanding that those present were entirely inno- 
cent of the causes of their comrades' absence. 

The arrangements for apprehending escaped prisoners 
were as perfect as the ingenuity of Wirz, aided by the 
skill and interest of others, could make them. To effect 
recaptures dogs were employed — hounds. The first pack 
was organized under the superintendence of "Wesley W. 
Turner, a citizen of Sumter County, and numbered nine. 
For the use of his dogs and managing them, taking them 



76 ANDERSONVILLE. 

to track and catch prisoners, lie was paid by Wirz seven 
hundred and fifty dollars per month. During the month 
of May, however, the control of the hounds was trans- 
ferred to Benjamin Harris, who managed them during 
the remainder of the time that they were required. 
There were other volunteer packs within a distance of 
twenty or thirty miles, whose services were occasionally 
used by their owners, and who were paid fifteen dollars 
a head for all captures returned to the prison. At one 
time Harris's pack attained the number of twenty-two, 
and among them were dogs of pure Cuban blood. 

The constitution of a pack of hounds is somewhat pe- 
culiar. It is requisite to assort them in such a way that 
every advantage may be taken of their different abilities 
and powers of endurance. Some are needed to trace the 
steps of the fugitive and point out the course he has 
taken ; their scent must be keen and their muscle good. 
To supply any failure on the part of these, others are 
needed, who will take up the scent and " keep it warm." 
After these come the "catch dogs" — the real blood- 
hounds, who, following at a more leisurely pace, keep 
within hearing of those who head the course, and when 
the quarry comes to bay, or "is treed," are generally up 
in time to take the prey. These dogs are naturally very 
ferocious, and require no other stimulus to display their 
savage characters than a sight of the chase which they 
have been pursuing. 

Often, after an " exciting" hunt, when his horse had 
given out from the length and severity of the ride after 
an American citizen, the owner of the pack would come 
upon the fugitive standing at bay, with club in hand. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 77 

vainly endeavoring to beat off the ferocious brutes, who, 
with dripping jaws, were closely pressing upon him, or, 
it may be, they had already succeeded in breaking in his 
guard, and were engaged in tearing and mangling their 
defenseless victim. Blows only could force off the rav- 
enous pack, and the exhausted, terrified fugitive would 
be captured, and for a long time would bear about his 
emaciated body the ghastly signs of his captor's rapac- 
ity, provided his rough treatment did not terminate in 
death. 

Joseph E. Achuff, of a Massachusetts regiment and a 
prisoner, succeeded in making his escape one day. He 
was one of three who had been permitted to go out under 
charge of a guard to gather wood, and when they reached 
the forest he suddenly jumped upon the soldier, and his 
two companions disarmed him and tied him. The three 
separated and made off in pursuit of their liberty. Soon 
the deep voices of the hounds opened upon their ears, 
and Achuff took to the swamp, thinking that his tracks 
could be less easily followed through the water and mo- 
rass. But these were of little avail to him, and in a 
short time the dogs and their yelhng owner were upon 
him, and he came to bay, his back against a tree, and a 
slight, rotten stick in his hand. His only clothing con- 
sisted of a shirt and pair of pantaloons made from two 
meal sacks, which he had secreted in the prison. Five 
hounds attacked him, and with the first blow his weapon 
broke; meanwhile the two drivers came up. For ten 
minutes this hard-beset man struggled against these suck- 
ers of his blood with his fists alone, the owner of the 
pack urging the brutes to their fiendish work with en- 



78 ANDERSONVILLE. 

couraging yells. When at la>st he could contend no more 
from exhaustion, and the hopelessness of the contest un- 
nerved him, he fell, and the bloodthirsty animals tore and 
bit him, with their frothing muzzles in his face and their 
fangs fastened to his cheeks, until the brutal ferocity of 
the leader was at length satisfied, and he called off his 
hounds. The taste of blood which they had made them 
deaf to orders, and they would not yield up their prey. 
They were at length torn off by the hind legs, and with 
them came, too, portions of his flaccid flesh and hard- 
earned pantaloons. 

He was bound and led back to Wirz, who punished 
him with the stocks for thirty-six hours, exposed to the 
sun, bloody, wounded, sore as he was, while his parched 
throat was relieved with but two drinks of muddy, foul 
water during that entire period. Wirz passed him once 
during his torture ; and when he appealed to him for a 
release, and complained of the cruel treatment to which 
he was subjected, he was told to "dry up, or he would 
blow his d — d brains out!" This is not an isolated case; 
it is, unfortunately, but one out of the many which were 
of daily occurrence. 

The sport of hunting escaped prisoners was regarded 
by Wirz as a relaxation from the monotony of his tor- 
turing and daily duty, and it was no unusual thing for 
him to "follow the hounds" in their run after human 
game for twelve hours at a stretch. The relief which 
this afforded from oflQ.cial routine was enjoyed by the 
coursing captain with a zest which would have excited 
the admiration of the keenest sportsman of meaner prey. 

When notice was given him that a prisoner had es- 



ANDERSON VILLE. 79 

caped, word was passed to Harris, and tlie animating 
sounds of yelping hounds and braying horns gave signal 
that " game was up." With canteen well filled with hos- 
pital whisky, and haversack stuffed with meat and bis- 
cuit, his pouch of tobacco dangling from a button-hole, 
and his revolver buttoned in its holster, the jailer would 
mount his pony and hurry away to the exciting sport. 
Leading the dogs around the stockade with encouraging 
words, they soon strike the scent, while the deep bay of 
the pack proclaims that it is warm, and the rout dash off 
with eagerness on the track. Now and then, in the dis- 
tance, can be heard the loud mouth of the leading dog, 
signaling the rest, and showing that his unerring nose is 
tracing out the game. 

If the run is long, and the fugitive has obtained a good 
start, and the heat and ride has wearied the captain, he 
will, perhaps, rest for a brief space near some stream, and 
invigorate his hopes of success with a dram, and then re- 
new the hunt with fresh energy. Toward the close of 
day, repeated calls upon the canteen will have diminished 
its contents, and the haversack will have been emptied 
of its store ; but the sight of some friendly house will 
cheer him with the prospect of a fresh supply, that the 
energetic huntsman may not suffer from want or weari- 
ness, and he urges on the chase. At length, through 
swamps, over old fields, and through dense woods, the 
loud voices of the hounds, mingled with the sounds of 
horns, give notice from afar that the "game is treed," 
and the persevering captain hurries up his jaded pony 
that he may be in " at the death." There would be the 
poor hunted wretch, throttled by the dogs and lacerated 



80 ANDERSONVILLE. 

by the blood-Hounds, sick unto death from his race, his 
fright, and his wounds, the trophy of the day. Con- 
fronted with the director of the rout, wondrous oaths and 
curses would be showered upon his head, perhaps blows 
upon his wearied body, with threats of his revolver, and 
he would be led back to suffer yet more in the stocks or 
the chain-gang for his temerity in daring to escape from 
the wretchedness that was his fate. 

This is no fancy-drawn sketch; the whole country 
iaround Anderson ville has been often awakened by the 
braying of the huntsman's horns, and the echoes startled 
with the yelping cries of the hounds, as they opened upon 
the track of a fugitive prisoner. The evidence taken be- 
fore the Military Commission was overwhelming upon 
this point, and its recapitulation here would be but a repe- 
tition of what has been already written. The facts which 
were given in evidence in relation to the use of hounds, 
and the sufferings endured from them, would fill a vol- 
ume by themselves, and among the very few admissions 
made by Wirz this was one. The simple truth is repuls- 
ive enough without drawing upon fancy to aid its effects, 
or without copying the official reports of Wirz to Winder, 
from one of which the foregoing epitome has been de- 
duced. 

In all this time filth and misery reigned supreme within 
the stockade, and starving wretchedness stalked around, 
or was hauled out to its last receptacle in the trenches. 
Twenty-seven thousand nine hundred men were now con- 
fined in the prison limits. Their destitution and misery 
can not be conceived ; their desire for some mitigation 
of their discomforts, and their unceasing appeals for trivial 



ANDERSONVILLE. 81 

privileges, which did not invade the most unyielding in- 
humanity, were piteous. 

It was deemed necessary to enlarge the area of the 
prison bounds, so that at least standing-room might be 
given to the prisoners, and it was, in consequence, ex- 
tended toward the north so as to include five more acres. 
It is true that this afforded somewhat more space, but its 
immediate occupation by the overcrowded captives seem- 
ed scarcely to diminish the press of men within the walls. 
In the expressive words of a witness, a Confederate offi- 
cer, " the human beings there looked more like so many 
ants, and their burrows like so many ant-hills, than any 
thing else." 

" Or say," said Wirz's counsel, "like so many bees?" 

"No, sir," replied the witness, "bees are notoriously 
clean — the prisoners were offensively filthy !" 

Many of the poor fellows had dug holes in the slope 
of the hill large enough to allow about four men to lie 
down close to each other. The dirt taken out by the 
excavations was appropriated by others to plaster up the 
shanties they had erected of poles and brush, and by this 
means they were enabled to exclude the weather. Some 
improvised temporary coverings of blankets and cloth- 
ing, under which the occupants crouched and panted in 
the midday when the sun poured down all his rays, or 
under their shelter sought protection from the drench- 
ing rains. 

Others, whom apathy, which long-suffering had in- 
duced, and with entire disregard to comfort, however 
poor, that weariness of life instigated, sat sullenly around 
during the hot hours of the day, or lay down at night 

D2 



82 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

wherever sleep or exhaustion overtook them, careless 
whether the sun and the dews bred disease or not. 

The continuous stir and the ceaseless movement among 
the prisoners, the constant crossing and intermingling of 
the thousands as they passed and repassed to and fro, 
most naturally prompted the comparison with ants which 
the witness made. An increasing vibration was kept up 
among the throng, relieved from its monotonous sough 
by the dull hum of confused voices that rose from that 
overcrowded place, while the spectator might weary him- 
self with the vain attempt to disintegrate the noises which 
assailed his ears. 

Now and then, these sounds would be diversified by 
the occasional thug of a musket, as some watchful senti- 
nel spied an infraction of the dead line^ and sent his bul- 
let into the transgressor's brain. A shriek, a convulsive 
twitch of the victim's limbs, a crimson stream down the 
cheek, glaring eyes and paling lips — a rush and crowd 
of hundreds to the spot where he lay — it was only one 
more who had paid the penalty of reaching a pole with 
cup on end to dip up some clearer water beyond that 
fatal line. 

On the 15th day of May, a poor fellow, a member of 
the 8th Missouri Regiment, who had lost a leg at the bat- 
tle of Chickamauga, and who was named thereafter, and 
who, in consequence of the want of good sense, was also 
nicknamed by his fellows "Mutton-head," asked the sen- 
tinel to call Captain Wirz, for he had been so worried 
and badgered by his mates that he must seek some escape 
from them. Wirz came, and " Chickamauga" proffered 
his request to be allowed to go outside on parole. Wirz 



ANDEESONVILLE. 83 

cursed him, and threatened to shoot him if he ever again 
bothered him with such a request. In a whining, sup- 
plicatory tone, the half-witted cripple reiterated his peti- 
tion, and told him that " he would rather be shot than 
stay there any longer — the men plagued him to death I" 
Turning to the sentinel on the platform, Wirz cried out, 
" Shoot the one-legged Yankee devil !" The guard fired, 
the ball shattering the man's head, and in two minutes 
he died. His useless crutches were seized by his former 
companions for fuel, while the crippled imbecile was 
"hauled out by his leg," to be borne away to the quick- 
lime and the trench. 

Shall we go with the wagon and its loathsome load of 
mortality to this last receptacle of man, and see the wit- 
less " Chickamauga" placed in his grave? It is a repul- 
sive duty, but it must be, for it is part of what is doing 
here now, and, besides, the tenants of that spot were fast 
pressing by their numbers upon the precincts of the liv- 
ing, and they deserve some notice at our hands. 

See that great, high -bodied wagon, drawn by four 
mules, lumbering along, and creaking under its load of 
mortal men, on its way to the long home ! It stops for 
a moment while two attendant negroes lift up, not rever- 
ently and silently, as is wont with the dead, what remains 
of the shallow-brained " Chickamauga," but as one would 
seize the carcase of a dog they grasp him by hair and 
leg, and toss him over into the body of the wagon, and it 
lumbers onward to the prison cemetery ! 

Here, in long trenches, lay those who had preceded him 
to their "narrow home." Some twenty have been already 
cast in, and with the load just arrived this trench will be 



84 ANDEESONVILLE. 

filled. One by one they are rouglily thrown into the 
excavation, some in their descent falling upon the head, 
others rolling doubled up together, and others again 
sprawling upon their faces. The attendants threw the 
Missouri idiot with a force that sent him seated with his 
back resting against the side of the trench, his head hang- 
ing on one side, and his glazed, unclosed eyes glaring 
upon the companions of his tomb. An awful sight he 
was as he sat there in his grim wretchedness, hideous and 
spectral, imitating the life which had left him in position 
and vestment, but sitting there only to claim his privilege 
of being hid away under the ground, to find the repose 
denied him upon earth ! A striking commentary upon 
the " deep damnation of his taking off." 

With a careless kick of the foot from a negro, the limp 
form fell prone, and was at last at rest. A few baskets- 
ful of quick-lime were scattered over all, a few shovels- 
ful of dirt cast upon the recumbent misery there, and 
without a prayer, "uncoffined and unknelled," poor 
" Chickamauga" sleeps until the last reveille shall awaken 
him and his brother dead. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 85 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Kindness of Confederate Surgeons. — Contributions by the Ladies. — Con- 
trasts. — Refusal of Winder to permit Aid for the Sick. — A Church- 
warden's Language. — Attempt to obtain an Injunction to abate the 
Nuisance. — The Result. 

We gladly turn from the revolting details that have 
been forced upon us to a brighter view, which falls like a 
beam of light upon the dark shadows that have obscured 
the pictures we have been compelled to draw. It may 
be asked by the susceptible reader if the foregoing de- 
lineations have been given merely to excite superfluous 
horror ? If this condensed statement of what has been 
verified under oath is not intended to keep alive the bit- 
terness which occasioned the miseries described ? 

The answer is, Are the outrages committed upon de- 
fenseless prisoners of war, and the sufferings endured by 
the obscure soldiers of the Union, to be passed over as 
mere incidents of the rebellion ? Are the nauseating de- 
tails of their captivity, misery, and death beneath the dig- 
nity of narration ? 

Perhaps it might be better to deal with oppression and 
murder in the abstract, and not to enter into the special 
details of their perpetration' — to suffer the "dead" past 
" to bury its dead," and to cast into one oblivious stream 
all that is repugnant to enlightened humanity, that it 
may sink and be unrecorded to the prejudice of man- 
hood. 



bb ANDERSONVILLE. 

If mere sensibility was regarded — if it was sought to 
combine the fifty thousand tragedies enacted at Ander- 
sonville into one sentence of condemnation, and then per- 
mit them to pass into forgetfulness, perhaps it might be 
well to follow such instigation. 

But it must be remembered that these statements are 
no inconsiderable part of the history of the great rebel- 
lion that brought them into such vivid life ; that these 
hideous recitals furnish the clew to that inner life and 
motive which was the cause of the mighty movement by 
which a vast tyranny was sought to be erected, and the 
great republic of the world destroyed. 

State documents, dignified accounts of important bat- 
tles doubtless possess great value — oftentimes they are 
hardly worth the paper upon which they are written. 
As a connecting link between the battles fought for their 
release from captivity and the sufferings of over fifteen 
thousand literal victims, this narrative is given. That it 
may be realized that the documents which have been is- 
sued from the government having reference to this pris- 
on had a value in themselves, the woes and miseries of 
nearly forty thousand prisoners are detailed. The dig- 
nity of the accounts of battles will not be lessened, the 
author believes, by giving, as one of their results, the res- 
cuing of twenty thousand men from horrors that almost 
unmanned them, and by adding that, although but few 
of them live, perhaps some may yet aid in building up a 
state whose corner-stone shall rest upon an active hu- 
manity, drawn from the lessons of its violation at Ander- 
sonville, and whose influence will affect the future treat- 
ment of prisoners of war throughout the world. 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 87 

But, aside from all such excuse, it is enough to know 
that the government of the United States has not consid- 
ered it beneath its dignity to arraign the men who were 
guilty of the crimes which these pages unfold, and to 
punish them for their commission. The embodiment of 
these offenses, with an attempt to smooth over their most 
offensive features, is all that has been done in this ISTar- 
rative, and the major violation of humanity must be 
merged into the minor error of disclosure if it is made 
responsible for the -horrors which it recites. 

We repeat, then, that it is with unaffected satisfaction 
that we are allowed to look upon a fairer picture than 
has yet been painted. 

Amid all the destitution and neglect which character- 
ized this place, there were some to be found who allowed 
the simple dictates of humanity to influence them under 
the restraints of military discipline. There were not 
wanting in the wards of the hospital a few men whom 
their profession as physicians had taught the secret of 
success in the healing art. It has been observed that or- 
ders were issued prohibiting the administering of com- 
forts of any kind to the sick Union soldiers. Whether 
these orders came from the commanding officer of the 
post, or from the chief medical director, Dr. White, does 
not fully appear from the evidence. 

Every one, however, who testified to this fact, and there 
were five who did so, concurs in stating that such orders 
were issued, and it is unreasonable to conclude, under all 
the circumstances of delegated authority which marked 
the management of the prison and its accessories, that they 
emanated from the medical director. Notwithstanding, 



88 ANDERSONVILLE. 

it was not unusual for a very few of the surgeons to sup- 
ply from their own means simple but grateful necessaries 
to the wretched patients under their care, and thus to a 
very limited extent, it is true, afford some amelioration 
of their extreme destitution and want. 

Conspicuous among these surgeons was Dr. B. J. Head, 
of Americus, Georgia, who had the management of a ward 
in one of the hospitals, and who was bo horrified and dis- 
gusted with the filthy condition of his future patients, 
th^t at first he determined to resign his post and leave, 
rather than face the misery and degradation that met his 
eyes. 

Dr. Head was a physician of many years' practice, and 
it was and is well known that his experience has brought 
him among as much suffering as generally falls to the lot 
of a medical practitioner. He had been conversant with 
much that would shock and repel one less unaccustomed 
than himself to human misery ; he imagined that he had 
sounded by professional familiarity the depths to which 
repellant foulness reached, and could look unmoved upon 
human impurity. He overrated his powers, and was sat- 
isfied, when he entered these head-quarters of filth, that 
there was yet something for him to learn. 

He reflected that by his presence and influence he 
might be able to mitigate the sufferings of the wretched 
beings there, and he remained. He carried from his 
home such food and nourishment as his weakened pa- 
tients could more easily swallow than the coarse prison, 
fare roughly given to them ; his basket was daily sup- 
plied with biscuit and light bread, tea, and rice, which he 
distributed to the most needy of his ward, as far as they 



ANDERSONVILLE. 89 

would go. During their season, vegetables, and especial- 
ly tomatoes, proved most grateful to his scurvy-stricken 
patients, and these he supplied as liberally as he dare, 
with the fear of positive orders against it before his eyes. 
To his everlasting credit be it said. Surgeon E. D. Eland, 
in charge of the division, connived at these violations of 
orders, and winked at, if he did not assist in, the humane 
deceptions of Dr. Head. 

In all of these kindly efforts the doctor was most cor- 
dially and zealously seconded by his good wife, whose 
discriminating judgment and willing assistance showed 
how deeply her feelings were enlisted in favor of the un- 
fortunate prisoner-patients. She could not content her- 
self with such contributions as her own restricted means 
permitted, and she was unwilling that the sweet solace 
of knowing that humanity could be vindicated by wom- 
an should be confined to her alone. She sought to in- 
terest other ladies in the cause of relieving human woe, 
and in the contributions of such comforts as they could 
spare for the poor, naked, dying prisoners, and she made 
a tour of the county, urging and soliciting their aid. 

It need not surprise the reader to learn that she met 
the usual difficulties which arise in the path of the be- 
nevolent missionary. But she faltered not in her course, 
and was rewarded by finding a very few warm hearts 
and ready sympathies among the women of Sumter 
County, who eagerly responded to this call upon their 
charities, while they poured out their offerings into a 
common store. Old linen, clothes, stockings, were con- 
tributed, together with bread, tea, coffee, and food, while 
the tender-hearted lady who had inaugurated the step 



90 ANDERSONVILLE. 

superintended their conveyance and distribution to the 
objects for whom they were intended. Not once only 
was this mission successful, but often were the donations 
of these few and most excellent women transmitted to 
Andersonville. 

Perhaps it may be thought these acts do not merit ex- 
aggerated praise ; for, although spontaneous, they were 
only such evidences as were due from womanly sympa- 
thy for human suffering, and they should be regarded as • 
but the natural consequences which a recital of the pris- 
oners' condition would produce on commiserating hearts. 

It must be borne in mind, however, that many of these 
ladies had husbands, and sons, and brothers in the war ; 
that many hearts which were melted to pity were even 
then bleeding for the loss of some near and dear one; 
that often a tear would steal forth from eyes already red 
with weeping, and, gently trickling down, fall upon the 
package that she made up for those, perhaps, who had 
caused her sorrow. 

It required a moral courage on the part of the ladies 
concerned in this deed of mercy which can not be ex- 
pressed, to fortify them to stem the torrent of hatred that 
was poured out against the Federal prisoners by nearly 
all classes, male and female, and upon the head and 
against the motives of their agent and leader of benevo- 
lence. Insults and aspersions from the proud, and arro- 
gant, and ignorant of her own sex ; the denial of the 
commonest offices of humanity, and the refusal of the 
most trifling articles which were not needed, and could 
not be consumed by the owner; the being told that 
vegetables should rot upon the vines before they should 



ANDERSONVILLE. 91 

go to the solace of a dying prisoner, were not uncommon 
returns for efforts in tlieir behalf 

And so, without exaggerating the virtues that shone so 
brightly forth in these acts, prominence is given to their 
insertion, and it is believed that they will be regarded as 
the brightest beams that have been shed upon this other- 
wise dark picture. 

It was at least due to that loyalty to humanity, which 
is an ever-present excellence in woman every where, to 
show that it did not fail them at a period and under cir- 
cumstances when its non-observance could well have 
been excused. 

Considerable circumspection had to be observed in 
transmitting the articles thus collected to the intended 
recipients, and negroes were generally made the medium 
of conveyance. These could pass with their baskets with- 
out challenging much suspicion from the guards or scru- 
tiny from officious officers, and thus the stores reached 
their destination. 

One negro man was conspicuous in the assistance which 
he rendered. He had been in the hospital before with 
his master the doctor, and with him had been horrified 
at the sights which there met his eyes. His simple ac- 
count of one visit that he made with a basketful of com- 
forts contains in itself all that is needed to convey an 
idea of the misery and destitution that characterized the 
place. 

" My God !" said he, and the tears stood in his eyes as 
he said it, " I never thought to see a white man so low 
down as those there. Why, sir, there was one whose 
bones were through his skin, and he was lying right on 



92 ANDERSONVILLE. 

the bare ground ! Yes, sir, lie'd made a hole where he'd 

turned and rolled There were two holes, sir, just 

so he could roll on to one and off into the other 

He didn't have more than a rag on him ; and as for the 
lice .... When I give 'em what I had in the basket, 
and after they'd ate it all, one got down on the ground 
and picked up what was scattered, like a dog !" 

At length the Eev. Mr. Da vies saw General Winder, 
and told him what some of the ladies of the county had 
done and what they wished to continue doing, and Win- 
der apparently entered cordially into their views, and 
gave his consent that provisions and clothes could be 
sent to the hospital patients. Two lots were sent and 
distributed, and active exertions were made by the few 
ladies before referred to to prepare another and a larger 
supply. A third stock was accumulated, and several 
ladies, with three gentlemen, proceeded up to Anderson- 
ville with them to superintend their proper distribution. 
The gentlemen were Dr. B. J. Head, Messrs. Stephen 
Daniels, and Wills C. Godwin. The last named had been 
particularly requested by the doctor to accompany him. 

When they reached the post, the supplies were left in 
the charge of Mr. Daniels to be unloaded, while the doc- 
tor and Mr. Godwin proceeded to the office of the provost 
marshal for a permit to carry the things through the line 
of sentinels. With an oath. Lieutenant Eeed, the provost, 
swore " he would give no pass for any such d — d traitor- 
ous purpose." He was told that it was by authority of 
General Winder. ''I don't believe it," said he; "he's 
not such a d — d fool as that." Sitting in his office were 
several rebel officers unconnected with the post — some 



ANDERSONVILLE. 93 

prisoners of war on parole. One of these swore that the 
doctor "ought to be hung for his Yankee sympathies, 
and he was ready to put the rope on his neck then and 
there." Another threatened to shoot him, as " he was no 
better than a Yankee." 

Driven from the offices by such and other menaces, 
he proceeded to General Winder's quarters, and stated to 
him his object and that of the ladies, and requested a pass 
to take the things to the Federal hospital. 

" ril see you in hell first !" returned the general. "You 
are a d — d Yankee sympathizer, and all those connected 
with you." 

"You are mistaken, general," said the doctor. "You 
know that / am no Yankee sympathizer, sir. I do sym- 
pathize with suffering humanity, and this is a mission of 
mercy." 

" God d — n your mission of mercy !" cried the general. 
"I wish that you and every other d — d Yankee sympa- 
thizer, and every G — d d — d Yankee too, were all in hell 
together !" 

"But, general," rejoined the doctor, "we are here by 
your express permission given to Mr. Davies." 

" It's a d — d lie !" replied he. "I never gave him or 

any one else permission to keep the d — d from 

starving, and rotting too, if they choose." 

" Well, general, will you allow the provisions to go in 
this time, now that they are up here ?" 

"No, by God! not the first d — d morsel shall go in," 
returned the general. 

At this moment the little provost marshal, Keed, en- 
tered the ofiice hastily, and said, 



94 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

" General, give me an order to have these goods con- 
fiscated?" 

" I don't think I've got the power to do that, Eeed," 
replied he, "but I have got the power to prevent the 
d — d Yankees from having them, and, by God ! they 
sha'n't." 

Seeing that be could not procure the requisite pass, 
and fearing, from the threatening language of Winder, 
the scorching looks and oaths of other of&cers, that the 
ladies and himself might be subjected to personal re- 
straint, if not to personal abuse, he reluctantly advised 
them to give up the attempt and to return home, which 
they did. 

The load of necessaries which was carried up on this 
occasion filled a four-mule wagon. They were taken and 
used at the post. 

The above-detailed conversation took place in the hear- 
ing of the ladies, whose presence and whose mission failed 
to restrain the blasphemy of Winder or the curses of his 
officers. It has been copied from the evidence, and is 
only given in its detailed deformity that the world can 
judge of what is requisite to constitute a good and well- 
qualified church-warden, as well as what does not make 
a gentleman. 

After such a repulse, it is not surprising that these 
kind-hearted women ceased in their efforts to mitigate 
the sufferings of the patients, or were unwilling to ex- 
pose themselves to another so gross affront. The few 
comforts which could and would have been supplied to 
the suffering ones there were thus ruthlessly denied them, 
and the fiat had gone forth that this receptacle, where 



ANDEESONVILLE. 



il 



no feeling or act of humanity was permitted to enter, 
over which the dark wings of Azrael were brooding and 
shading with death, was to be left to the tender mercies 
of those who knew not what fellow-feeling was. 

It was shown by Wirz upon his trial that during the 
month of August he was sick and not in command of 
this prison ; that its temporary charge was turned over 
to one Davis, and for this period he could not be made 
responsible for what occurred there. But it appears from 
an of&cial report made by Wirz himself for this month 
to Winder, and having the indorsement of the latter 
upon it, that "the aggregate of prisoners at that time was 
thirty-four thousand seven hundred and fifty ^ out of which 
number two thousand two hundred and ninety -three died 
within the month^ and twenty -five escaped prisoners were 
taken up by the dogs^ From his own showing, he re- 
buts the evidence which he introduced to exculpate him- 
self from the terrible mortality of this period, and it is 
well that there is corroborative evidence, derived from 
the principals themselves, to substantiate what otherwise 
human credence would be slow to receive. 

By dividing the number of deaths by the days in this 
month, it will be seen that the incredible number of sev- 
enty-four victims of relentless cruelty passed away each 
day, or nearly two every hour ! It might be imagined 
that a benevolent desire to mitigate human suffering, re- 
spect for one's own self, a regard for the ultimate verdict 
of his fellow-men, and for the mighty account hereafter 
to be rendered, would have stayed this horrible mortali- 
ty, and have shut down the flood-gates of destruction to 
arrest the torrent which was sweeping the hospitals at 



&6 ANDERSONVILLE. 

such tremendous rate. We have placed before the read- 
er one series of efforts made by disinterested persons to 
stop this flow of death ; let us turn to another attempt 
made by a single individual. 

After relinquishing, in the spring of the year, to his 
successor. General Winder, the command of the post, Col- 
onel A. W. Persons had been isolated from any interest 
in its management. But the complaints of residents near 
the place of the effluvium which was wafted in every di- 
rection from it, threatening pestilence through the infect- 
ed air, whose taint could be perceived for two miles, and 
the reports which were current through the country of 
the destitution and death which reigned there, attracted 
Colonel Persons's attention. His inquiries resulted in ap- 
plying for and obtaining from the judge of the South- 
western Circuit an injunction at law against the Ander- 
sonville stockade and burying-ground as a public nuis- 
ance. He was, however, kindly warned by the judge of 
the consequences which would accrue to him personally 
if he persisted in demanding an inquiry and hearing. 

The storm of abuse, the danger to which he would be 
exposed, not only from those of&cially connected with the 
prison, but from the people of the country, induced him 
to pause in his humane effort, and finally to withdraw 
his proceeding. He very properly considered that one 
person alone would be quickly swept ^way by the hur- 
ricane of wrath which would be raised against him, and 
he would not have the poor consolation of feeling that he 
had stirred even the surface of public sentiment in his 
vain attempt to point the finger of justice. He desisted, 
but his motion produced some results, which will be de- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 97 

tailed in a subsequent chapter. And he might well pause 
and reflect before he entered upon the Herculean task of 
cleaning out such an Augean den ! 

The burying-ground, to which a slight reference has 
been made, was probably the most horrible place under 
that name which can be well conceived. The corpses of 
the dead were not buried ; they were only slightly cov- 
ered with loose dirt, quick-lime having been previously 
scattered over them to insure more rapid decomposition. 
On any day the curious visitor to this necropolis could 
be satisfied how little was required to dispose of a mortal 
man after his spirit had left his body. 

The trenches into which the remains were cast were 
dug not more than three feet deep, frequently not more 
than two, and were in long lines parallel to each other. 
Into these were thrown the bodies of the Federal soldiers 
— no box or coffin was permitted — no decent shrouding 
even in the ragged blanket was allowed. The dead-wag- 
on, drawn by four horses, went constantly back and forth 
from the hospital to the trenches bearing its load of death, 
and supervised by negroes. When about twenty feet of 
mortality was huddled side to side, lime was scattered 
upon the bodies, and the earth carelessly thrown over all. 
A few days of rain, or the depredations of animals, would 
here and there have exposed some luckless limb, or arm, 
or head of the dead ones, and, as the torrid heats of the 
summer suns poured down their decaying powers, a taint 
and effluvium of corruption would pervade the atmos- 
phere for miles around. 

Here, over this ghastly spot, could be seen at almost 
any time countless hosts of sluggish buzzards, now pois- 

E 



98 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

ing themselves on untiring wing, now slowly hovering 
over and looking down upon the festering heaps which 
invited to their horrid repasts, as, blackening the dead 
limbs of some distant tree, they sat and regaled their 
sight with what their gloated appetites had already feast- 
ed on. And the legs, and arms, and skulls, which could 
be seen protruding all over this vast grave, were the only 
signal-marks of the last resting-places of an army of mar- 
tyrs. 

On the first day of September there had been deposited 
in this necropolis nine thousand iivo hundred and eighty 
human bodies ! 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Effect of the Injunction. — Commission to examine the Hospitals. — Re- 
port. — Counter-testimony. — Cumulative Evidence. — Poisonous vac- 
cine Matter. — Stimulants. — Provisions. 

Information had been conveyed to Howell Cobb at 
Macon, then in command of the Military District of Geor- 
gia, of the movement made by Colonel Persons as to the 
injunction against Andersonville as a public nuisance. 
Complaints had also been forwarded to the authorities at 
Richmond, which contained general but correct state- 
ments of the desolation which Winder and Wirz were 
creating. Rumors throughout the country gave currency 
to the extent of the suffering of the hordes of prisoners 
there confined, and, in some cases, newspapers in the vi- 
cinity heralded, some with boastful pride, others with 
reprehension, the enormous mortality which was daily 
occurring there. 

One commissioner had been sent by the War Ofl&ce at 
Richmond to examine into and report the condition and 
treatment of the prisoners. Another was about to start, 
under orders from General Cobb, to examine into the ar- 
rangements of the hospitals, and the provision made for 
the care of the patients therein. Many circumstances co- 
operated to force this display of regard to the welfare of 
the prisoners upon the officials most remote from the 
scene, and spurred up the lagging carelessness which 
characterized the general conduct of the rebelhon. 



100 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

But the general in command of the military district 
within whose limits the prison was situated knew that he 
would be held responsible for the mismanagement, cor- 
ruption, and desolation which were being enacted within 
sixty miles of his head-quarters. The complaints of the 
prisoners had reached him through unofficial sources, and 
the reports which daily came to his notice advised him 
of gross wrong at this point ; and, it may be added, his 
own eyes, from constant passing in view of the stockade, 
forced upon him the necessity of at least making a show 
of remedying the abuses which prevailed there. 

He appointed one of his staff, with orders to proceed 
to Andersonville and examine into the condition of the 
hospitals, and report to him the result. • What that report 
was can not now be ascertained, but the conclusions which 
the commanding general drew from it are before us in his 
own report to the authorities at Eichmond. 

He states that he had sent Surgeon Eldridge, of his 
staff, to make an examination of the condition of the hos- 
pitals at Andersonville, and from his report he is satis- 
fied that every thing has been accomplished which could 
be done for the comfort and medical care of the prison- 
ers; that nothing is required more than has been pro- 
vided for the treatment of patients ; and that the medical 
director deserves especial thanks for the energy he has 
displayed in organizing and providing the necessary 
requisites of medicines and hospital essentials. 

At the very time this examiner was discharging his 
important duty, the following daily report was made by 
a surgeon in this same hospital : 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 101 

"First Division C. S. M. P. Hospital,) 

September 5, 1864. > 

"Sir, — As officer of tlie day for the past twenty -four 
hours, I have inspected the hospital, and find it in as good 
condition as the nature of the circumstances will allow. 
A large majority of the bunks are still unsupplied with 
bedding, while in a portion of the division the tents are en- 
tirely destitute of either hunks^ bedding^ or straw, the patients 
being compelled to lie upon the hare ground. I would earn- 
estly call your attention to the article of diet ; the corn- 
bread received from the bakery, being made up of corn 
and cowpeas without sifting, is wholly unfit for the sick, 
and often, as in the last twenty-four hours, upon exam- 
ination, the inner portion is found to be entirely raw. 
The meat (beef) received by the patients does not amount 
to over two ounces a day ; and for the past three or four 
days no flour has been issued. The corn-bread can not 
be eaten by many, for to do so would be to increase the 
diseases of the bowels from which a large majority are 
sufiering, and it is therefore thrown away. All their ra- 
tions received by way of sustenance is two ounces of boiled 
beef and the soup from it per day. Under these circum- 
stances, all the skill that can be brought to bear upon 
their cases by the medical officer will avail nothing. 

"Another point to which I feel it my duty to call 
your attention is the deficiency of medicines. We have 
but little more than the indigenous barks and roots with 
which to treat the numerous forms of disease to which 
our attention is daily called. For the treatment of 
wounds, ulcers, etc., we have literally nothing except 
water. Our wards, some of them, are wild with gan- 



102 ANDERSONVILLE. 

grene, and we are compelled to fold our arms and look 
quietly upon its ravages, not even having stimulants to 
support the system under its depressing influence, the 
article being so limited in supply that it can only he issued 
for cases under the knife. I would respectfully call your 
earnest attention to the above facts, in the hope that 
something may be done to alleviate the suffering of the 
sick. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant, 
"J. Crews Pilot, Asst. Surgeon P. A.C.S., 
and Officer of the Day. 
" To Surgeon E. D. Eland, in charge of First i 
Division C. S. M. P. Hospital." $ 

To this may be appended the statement of Dr. "W". A. 
Barnes : 

"In the month of August and September there were 
over three thousand patients lying upon the ground^ par- 
tially naked; some had broken limbs and gangrene, scur- 
vy, and chronic diarrhoea. That the matter used for 
vaccinations was poisonous^ and amputations almost in- 
variably resulted from its use ; and although freely and 
constantly used in the prison hospitals and in the prison, 
it was enjoined upon surgeons to apply for other matter 
when Confederate soldiers were to be treated. Green 
corn, which, was an anti-scorbutic, was taken away from 
the patients and prisoners, the latter of whom were ar- 
rested and severely punished for buying it. In regard 
to 'stimulants to support the system,' there were in ^q^- 
tember forty-three barrels of whisky under the order of 
the medical director and intended for hospital uses, but 
it was reported that visitors to Drs. White and Stevenson 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 103 

bad all that they did not drink themselves. The greatest 
number of deaths in any one day was in August — they 
were two hundred and seven, or more than eight and a half 
each hour of the day. With proper care, from 70 to 80 
per cent, of the deaths might have been prevented !" 

Dr. Eoy also testifies to entire neglect in providing 
medicines, and said '' that, with the exception of very rare 
articles, there was no diffi.culty in obtaining medicines." 

Dr. Head gave the same testimony, and said : " I found 
the diseases in the hospital to result more from inatten- 
tion and improper diet than any thing else. When I 
first went on duty there I made a thorough diagnosis of 
all the cases in my ward, and wrote out my prescriptions 
for them, but I did not obtain the medicines I ordered. 
When I inquired into the reason for this neglect, I was 
told that I must go according to a prescribed formula, 
and ask only for such medicines as certain numbers in- 
dicated for a specified disease. For instance, I must put 
down, for gangrene, ISTo. 10 ; diarrhoea, No. 3, etc. This I 
considered as taking away all discretion from the phy- 
sician, and leaving it in the power of the medical direct- 
or, who arranged the system of practice to have given 
bread-pills or poison, as he might choose ; the ward phy- 
sician only reporting the disease, and the director pre- 
scribing for it, but the physician who administered could 
not know what he gave. Any body could practice with 
that formula before him, even if he had never seen a 
medical book, and I consequently refused to comply with 
the instructions. For the want of medicines, I had fre- 
quently to prescribe red-oak bark, and such other barks 
as could be got out of the woods. Patients died for the 



104 ANDERSONVILLE. 

want of stimulants, and the suffering there was well 
known throughout the state." 

Dr. Thornburg, another surgeon on duty in the hos- 
pital, coincided in his testimony with the other phy- 
sicians, but went somewhat more into details respecting 
the stimulants^ saying that " tlie wliishy was drank hy the 
medical director and Ms friends ; and Dr. Stevenson was 
reported as having embezzled the money sent for the pa- 
tients and the hospital fund to the amount of nearly 
eighty thousand dollars^ " The condition of the hospitals 
was horrible, and the patients were in as filthy a state as 
they could well be." 

All these things, it must be remembered, were trans- 
piring at the time of the examination ordered by General 
Cobb, and who reported, from the information given him 
by his " exaininer,^^ that nothing was required there ! 

Connected with the question of stimidants, so much 
needed in the treatment of gangrenous cases, we refer to 
the evidence of Benjamin B. Dykes, who was the rail- 
road agent at Andersonville during the year 1864, and 
had been since 1861. He had his railroad books with 
him, which contained the original entries from the freight 
lists of goods and stores unloaded at his depot. 

In the month of July there were sixty -four barrels of 
whisky left at his agency, of which forty -three were for 
the medical director. In August there were ninety-six 
barrels, sixty of which went to Dr. White for hospital 
use. In September there were thirty-six barrels, all for 
the hospital. Here, then, in three months only, there 
were one hundred and thirty-nine barrels of this so-much- 
called-for stimulant deposited in the hands of the medical 



ANDERSONVILLE. 105 

director for the necessities of the hospital. What became 
of this five thousand gallons of stimulant F The answer 
is to be sought in the testimony of the respectable phy- 
sicians, who suspected or knew where it went — down the 
throats of Dr. White and his friends. 

Eeferring back to Dr. Pilot's daily report to inquire 
whether it was impossible to supply proper food for the 
patients in those wards which he tersely characterizes as 
" wild with gangrene," we take the testimony of Uriah 
B. Harrold, a commissary of the Confederate government 
stationed at Americus, and who was in court with his 
"abstracts of shipments of provisions to Anderson ville," 
on the requisition of the proper authorities there. 

In the month of July he shipped to that place as follows : 



Bacon 102,000 lbs. 

Meal 63,000 bush. 

Flour 1,200 sacks. 

In August: 

Bacon 113,000 IBs. 

Meal 90,000 bush. 

riour 1,000 sacks. 

In September : 

Bacon 124,000 lbs. 

Meal 70,000 bush. 

Flour 1,500 sacks. 



Rice U,000 lbs. 

Sirup 94: bbls. 

Whisky 15 " 

Rice 10,000 lbs. 

Sirup 131 bbls. 

Whisky 20 " 

Rice 6,000 lbs. 

Sirup 150 bbls. 

Whisky 30 " 



These shipments were made by but one commissary, it 
will be remembered, while there were fifty others to an- 
swer any requisitions upon them from the officials at An- 
dersonville for the supply of that post and prison. The 
commissary stores at Albany, fifty miles from Anderson- 
ville, it was shown, were much larger than at Americus, 
and the warehouses there were literally breaking down 

E2 



106 ANDERSONVILLE. 

from the weight and quantity of stores assembled there. 
The commissaries at other points, near and easily accessi- 
ble to Andersonville, were continually sending supplies 
to that point, as the requisitions were made upon them. 

The stores shipped from Americus alone will be seen 
to have been amply sufficient for the alleviation of that 
want which all of the surgeons were daily deploring, if 
they had been properly applied to the purposes for which 
they were intended. The article of rice amounted to 
thirty thousand pounds in ninety days, or more than 
three hundred pounds for each day ; the flour, estimating 
the three thousand seven hundred sacks at fifty pounds 
each, would make over two thousand pounds for each 
day for the same period ; the sirup, rating the three 
hundred and seventy-five barrels at forty gallons each, 
would have afforded more than twenty pints per day ; 
and the whisky would give more than three hundred 
pints per day for the use of the patients in the hospitals. 

From these facts it may fairly be gathered that there 
was no want of supplies in the country ; and the ques- 
tion arises, What was done with those that were sent to 
Andersonville? The testimony of Dykes will go far to 
clear up one branch of this inquiry. He said that '' he 
knew James W. Duncan, who was in charge of the bak- 
ery and cook-house, and who was also a detective under 
Winder. He offered to sell me some sirup, ten barrels 
at one time, and said that Bowers, another detective, would 
show it or bring it to me. He told me that he had a 
large lot of flour which he wanted me to sell for him." 

The question very naturally arises why the person 
sent by General Cobb to " inquire into the condition and 



ANDERSONVILLE. 107 

treatment of the patients" in this hospital did not per- 
form his duty, and ascertain from the means within his 
reach facts so accessible? If stimulants were required, 
why did he not ask the simple question if a requisition 
had been made for them? He very well knew that there 
were Jive distilleries in the county of Sumter alone, work- 
ing under special contract with the government, a por- 
tion of whose produce must go to its agents, to be dealt 
out, on requisition, for hospital purposes. If the requi- 
sition had or had not been complied with, it was his duty 
to have reported the fact to his superior. In the same 
way he could have ascertained why no flour, or rice, or 
sirup was provided, for the means of doing so were with- 
in reach, and his duty was plain. 

The truth is, that during the whole rebellion, self-in- 
terest and self-aggrandizement, with a proportional dis- 
play of official consequence, shining in buttons and lace, 
or riding on blooded horses, monopolized the time and 
thoughts of most of those in authority, and especially 
those who were removed from the dangers of the front. 

The starvation, the suffering, hideous, horrible enough 
to awaken a cry that reached from one end of the Con- 
federacy to the other, was not sufficient to turn from friv- 
olous pleasure those to whom important interests had 
been committed, and whose duties, properly performed, 
might have mitigated the horrors which will always rest 
upon the civilization of the country as one of the foulest 
blots that history records. 

Favoritism, nepotism, every influence that could be 
brought to bear to advance personal interests, were ram- 
pant, while due performance of duty was the exception to 



108 ANDERSONVILLE. 

the reigning rule. While men rotted with gangrene, the 
surgeon was drinking the whisky intended to keep up 
life ; while the scurvy loosened the teeth and decayed 
the bones of its victim, the rice and flour provided for 
his nourishment were made up into puddings for the 
delectation of the surgeon's visitors ; and when a cooling 
food or drink was needed for the fevered patient, the 
baker was engaged in selling the sirup which would 
have afforded it. 

And so, robbed, starved, polluted by disease, denied 
even straw to lie upon, rolling in a filth which was re- 
pugnant even to a negro's notions of cleanliness — after 
due examination of such patients and their condition, the 
commanding general of the district reported, from in- 
formation of one of his subordinates, that every thing 
had been accomplished which could be done for the 
comfort and medical care of the prisoners — that nothing 
is required more than has been provided for the treat- 
ment of patients, and that the medical director deserves 
especial thanks for the energy he has displayed in organ- 
izing and providing the necessary requisites of medicines 
and hospital essentials ! 

After this, what could be done for the wretched vic- 
tims of a policy which seemed premeditated, and which, 
if continued, would make corpses of the last one of them? 

And this place, where sick and wounded men festered 
in their filth and degradation, was to be continued in the 
condition and under the auspices it was, and the whisky 
was to be drank, the money embezzled, the rice and flour 
to be made into puddings, and the sirup sold, to, the ever- 
lasting shame of those concerned, and to the detriment of 
the fair fame of the South, its chivalry and its humanity. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 109 



CHAPTEE X. 

Wirz's Shooting, Beating, and Stamping. — Starvation. — Duncan. — Story 
of Stewart. — Twenty-fourth New York Battery. — Exchanging Meat. 
— Did the Confederate Government know of these Things ? — Proof. 

Meanwhile tlie crowds within the stockade had at- 
tained the highest limits as to numbers which was reached 
during its continuance, there being in the month of Sep- 
tember thirty-six thousand four hundred and eighty in 
all. With this increase there was a corresponding aug- 
mentation of their sufferings. The rains of the autumn 
season, together with the constant tread of so many 
men, converted the interior at times into one vast bed of 
muddy slush nearly a foot deep — an aggregation of semi- 
liquid filth, through which the miserable prisoners un- 
ceasingly tramped in their unvarying round of pointless 
existence. Then for some days the hot sun would pour 
down upon this quagmire, feculent with putrefaction, 
and draw from its depths vapors saturated with the fetid 
stench that it exhaled, and which corrupted the air they 
had to inhale. 

"With their faces begrimed with smoke and dirt, their 
clothes in tatters and impregnated with vermin, shoeless 
and hatless, now up to their knees in mud, then breathing 
the pestilential atmosphere which a September sun had 
evoked, the wonder is that human nature did not suc- 
cumb more rapidly and in greater numbers than the irre- 
sponsible death-registers indicated. 



110 ANDERSON VILLE. 

As if all this combination of miseries for the extirpa- 
tion of human life would not suffice, Wirz personally 
aided in the dispatch of his victims with other means. 

Thomas C. Alcock testifies that " on one occasion a 
sick man asked Captain Wirz to let him go outside for 
some fresh air. Wirz inquired what he meant. Then 
turning round and saying to him, 'Any air is too good 
for a d — d Yankee,' pulled out his revolver and shot 
him down. The man died in two hours afterward, and 
he spoke in condemnation of this act to Wirz, who told 
him ' he would put him in the same fix ;' he replied that 
he was not afraid of it. Wirz then called a corporal and 
two guards, who put a ball and chain upon him. The 
man who was shot was named Wright^ and belonged to 
the Eighth Missouri." 

James H. Davidson also saw this deed. He says that 
''Wright was sick, and lying upon the ground. He asked 
Wirz to let him go out for some purpose, when Wirz 
cursed him and shot him with his revolver, and said ' he 
was killing more Yankees at Andersonville than Lee was 
at Eichmond.' " 

Who that witnessed it will ever forget the scene which 
was enacted in the Court of the Military Commission 
when a citizen was examined in relation to the shooting 
of a prisoner at the dead-house on the outside of the 
stockade ? This witness had been sent on to Washington 
by General Thomas from Nashville, Tennessee, and was 
examined the day after his arrival in the city. As was 
his custom, Wirz was reclining upon the sofa in the court- 
room. 

The judge advocate, Colonel N. P. Chipman, asked, 



ANDERSONVILLE. Ill 

" Do you know Henry Wirz ?" 

"I have seen him." 

" Would you recognize him if you should see him 
again ?" 

"I would, readily." 

" Prisoner, stand up and confront the witness !" 

With real or affected weakness, Henry Wirz slowly 
arose from his recumbent position, and, with vacillating 
look, stood before the witness, but cowered under his 
gaze, while his trembling limbs seemed almost to deny 
him support. 

''Who is that man?" 

" That is Henry Wirz, of Andersonville." 

" Are you positive of it ?" 

" I am positive of it, for I have seen him riding at An- 
dersonville ; and he was pointed out to me, when I first 
went there, as Captain Wirz." 

Here Wirz made a sign for water, when a glass was 
handed him by an attendant. 

"State under what circumstances you have seen him 
that you can identify him now." 

"I have seen him often at Anderson ville, but I know 
him as the man who shot my comrade, William Stewart." 

With a convulsive gesture of dissent, with both hands 
and arms extended, his fingers spasmodically working, 
as if they sought to grasp the witness, Wirz gurgled some 
unintelligible words to his accuser. 

" Silence, prisoner !" sternly ordered the president ; 
" your counsel will speak for you." 

His head sank upon his breast, and his arms hung 
nerveless by his sides as he obeyed. 



112 _ ANDERSONVILLE. 

"Look up, prisoner," said the judge advocate, "and 
regard the witness !" 

Slowly and languidly he raised his dull, glassy, deep- 
set eyes, and vacantly looked at the witness. 

" Go on and state the circumstances of the shooting." 

" Stewart and I had brought a dead body out to the 
dead-house without being ordered to do so, when Wirz 
came up and asked what we were doing there. Stewart 
replied that we had brought out a dead body. Wirz 
said it was a lie ; that we were trying to make our escape. 
Stewart said it was not so ; we had come out for the pur- 
pose he had stated ; when Wirz told him if he said that 
again he would blow his d — d brains out. Stewart re- 
peated what he had said before, when Wirz drew his re- 
volver and shot him," 

"Ko! no I I — I — " stammered the prisoner, wildly 
throwing his arms about, as if to beat off the phantom 
of his murdered victim that floated in ghastly form be- 
fore him, his eyes glaring and rolling in their meaning- 
less distraction, foam issuing from his quivering jaws, as 
his trembling limbs yielded to the weight they could not 
support, and he sank to the floor. 

"Bailiffs, sustain the prisoner !" echoed the deep voice 
of the president, as two officials, one on either side, raised 
up his crouching form, and so supported it. 

"How far off was Stewart from the prisoner when he 
was shot?" 

" About eight feet, sir." 

"Where did the ball strike him?" 

" In the breast." 

"How long did he survive the shot?" 



ANDERSONVILLE. 113 

" Not half an hour." 

"What else occurred at that time?" 

"Not much more, sir;" but, from the deeply -drawn 
breath and slow utterance of the witness, it was evident 
he was pondering the sad episode of his comrade's slaugh- 
ter, for his voice was low. "I told him I thought that 
was hard, when he said if I didn't look out he would 
blow mj brains out." Once more, with convulsive ges- 
ticulations and incoherent voice, the prisoner broke upon 
the hushed stillness of the crowded court-room ; but ac- 
cusing conscience was stronger than the relaxed voice or 
trembling frame, and he sank swooning into the bailiffs' 
arms. 

"Give the prisoner some brandy. Officer, clear the 
room. The court is adjourned for the day," ordered the 
president ; and the crowd slowly passed out, while an at- 
tendant physician sought by restoratives to summon back 
the ebbing spirit of the murderer Wifz. 

William Harrington was lying upon the ground one 
day sick, when Wirz passing by, Harrington asked him 
for some materials with which to make a tent. As he 
proffered his request, Wirz jumped upon him with his 
heavy -heeled boots several times, and stamped upon his 
breast, while the poor invalid screamed with agony. 
" There, G— d d — n you ! ask me for tents again !" cried 
Wirz, as blood and froth poured from the wan prisoner's 
mouth. He was taken to the hospital, and left it only in 
the dead-wagon. 

On another occasion, as the men were being divided 
into squads, one of the prisoners, from extreme exhaus- 
tion, did not or could not fall in, when Wirz told him, 



114 ANDERSONVILLE. 

with the usual oath, if he did not " get into line and stay 
there, he would beat his brains out!" The man replied 
that he could not stand up. "Then lie there, G — d d — n 
you!" and repeatedly struck him over the head and face 
with the butt of his revolver. His skull was broken, the 
dark tide flowing out from an aperture over the right 
temple, and he died just where he lay. 

Here let us stop. There has been too much. Heaven 
knows, already recited to harrow up the coldest sensibil- 
ities, to satisfy the most morbid tastes in this accumula- 
tion of cold-blooded, deliberate murders. The mind sick- 
ens with the regale that such a feast affords, and the hand 
wearies with recording the crimes. 

All this time the starvation among the prisoners con- 
tinued, and their necessities became so great that resorts 
were had to practices to obtain something to eat which 
no false delicacy must prevent being made known. It 
is in evidence " that men were frequently seen picking 
up particles of food — peas — which had passed undigested 
through the systems of others, washing and eating them." 

Thomas Walsh, of the 47th New York, had been able 
to retain in his possession a Testament, upon the blank 
leaves of which and along the margins he had written 
short terse sentences — a species of diary of the events oc- 
curring of greatest moment in his dread prison life. 
Here are some of the extracts : 

"March 26, no rations to-day; March 27, rations not 
served till three o'clock; April 1, no rations issued; April 
2, issued at five P.M., meal and mule flesh ; April 19, no 
meat ; April 27, a man shot for getting over the line ; 
May 2, our friend the cavalryman shot dead." Witness 



ANDEESONVILLE. 115 

explained that in this instance some boxes ha(i been sent 
through Kichmond from the North for the prisoners, and 
some one had thrown mouldy bread across the dead-line, 
and the man who was shot had reached over to get it. 
"May 15, the singular cripple, ' Chickamauga,' shot dead 
inside the dead line ; May 18, orders read that if any one 
attempts to breakout, the artillery will fire into the stock- 
ade indiscriminately — order signed by Wirz ; the captain 
vigorously looking out for tunnels ; the men in a most 
deplorable condition ; never knew but one man who ever 
returned to the stockade after being taken to the hospital. 
July 8, no rations ; July 4, rations full of maggots, and 
had to be thrown away ; July 18, a man shot dead at the 
dead line ; August 6, a man went to the brook, reached 
over the line with a pole and cup, and was shot — water 
colored with his blood ; September 10, my God, why hast 
Thou forsaken me ? September 12, no rations ; Septem- 
ber 14, rations served at five P.M. ; September 18, no ra- 
tions; we have had no rations since day before yester- 
day ; September 23, the boys are starving." And so it 
proceeds, the soiled but well-worn Gospel covered on all 
of its margins with such jottings down of the progress of 
starvation. It is unnecessary to quote more of this sad 
diary, but that little book is a compendium of all the 
horrors that all the prisons whose stories have been writ- 
ten can not equal for unmitigated and relentless bar- 
barity. 

Martin G. Hogan testified that " the men were in a 
miserable condition — as bad as possibly could be ; they 
were so thick that they could scarcely elbow their way ; 
some lay in their filth calling for water and crying for 



116 ANDERSONVILLE. 

food, but no attention was paid to them. The quality 
of the food was miserable, and eating it produced a most 
injurious effect, because the half-baked corn -bread was 
sour, and the beef, whenever it was furnished, was of 
very inferior quality, and more than half the time had 
maggots in it. Men af&icted with the scurvy would 
crawl upon the ground and pick up what passed through 
others — the sight was horrible; very many were with- 
out clothing, and, having no shelter, burrowed in the 
ground." 

Samuel M. Eiker, a prisoner, " was detailed to work in 
the bake-house, and was there for some time. There 
were great quantities of provisions there, and I never 
knew the commissary to be empty. On one occasion 
Captain Wirz sent down a large lot of spoiled pork and 
had it exchanged for good pork — the bad pork was is- 
sued to the prisoners ; I tried to eat some of it, and it 
made me sick. James W. Duncan was in charge of the 
bakery and cook-house, and was also a detective under 
Wirz. Duncan, Bowers, and Humes were together, and 
they used to take the provisions intended for the prison- 
ers and sell them. Duncan used to accept bribes of 
money and watches from the prisoners to let them es- 
cape, and then would tell Wirz of their intention and 
they would be punished. Duncan boasted that he was 
making more money by selhng provisions and sirup than 
any one else at Andersonville." 

This man, James W.Duncan, is or was in the Old Cap- 
itol Prison for murdering and inhumanly treating the pris- 
oners. He had been summoned to Washington as a wit- 
ness for Wirz, when, on his becoming known to the judge 



ANDERSONVILLE. 117 

advocate, he ordered his arrest upon the testimony which 
follows. This scene transpired on that occasion. 

Mr. Baker, Wirz's counsel, objected to any testimony 
with regard to Duncan, unless it could be first shown 
that he was an agent of Wirz, and acting under his orders. 

General Thomas : " We are trying a conspiracy, and 
other persons besides Wirz are charged." 

Mr. Baker : " I do not lose sight of that fact, but I pay 
no attention to that part of the first charge which charges 
unknown persons. It was well known that it could not 
be sustained in law, and therefore I pay no more atten- 
tion to it than I do to the idle wind." 

General Wallace : " Mr. Baker, you inform us that you 
pay no attention to this first charge. This is what we 
are trying the case under, and, if we were disposed to be 
curt, we may be induced to pay no attention to what you 
say." 

It was shown that on one occasion Duncan came into 
the stockade with bread as usual. The witness who tes- 
tified was detailed to go and bring the bread for his squad, 
with a man from a Tennessee regiment to assist him. 
After they had received their quota of bread, and Dun- 
can was dealing out to another squad, a piece of crust 
broke off and fell under the wagon. The Tennessee man 
stooped to pick it up, when Duncan leaped to the ground, 
and kicked and beat the man so severely that soon after 
he died. Some time from that Duncan was again issu- 
ing bread, and a poor half-witted fellow was standing 
near, looking on, but saying nothing. Duncan asked 
him, with an oath, what he wanted there ? He replied, 
" Nothing." " Well, here's something for you," said the 



118 ANDERSONVILLE. 

ruffian, when he knocked him down and stamped upon 
him, then threw him over the dead line, when a sentinel 
shot and killed him. 

On another occasion Duncan and Bowers seized upon 
James Armstrong, and put him in the spread-eagle stocks 
for saying that he did not get his full rations of bread. 
They robbed him of his money and a picture of his sister, 
which Armstrong begged might be returned to him. In 
six hours they returned and released him, when he again 
asked for his sister's likeness, but was told by Duncan, 
with an oath — all swore there, from Winder down to the 
negro who blacked his boots — " that he might consider 
himself d — d lucky to get off with his life;" and threat- 
ened to put a ball and chain on him if he said any thing 
more to him about it. The amount of money that Dun- 
can stole was nine dollars in greenbacks. 

But perhaps the most pitiable meanness, where mean- 
nesses were so common, was a trick which this man Dun- 
can played off upon a poor, scurvy-stricken prisoner, 
James Hamilton. It has been observed that orders were 
issued prohibiting the purchase of any vegetables by the 
prisoners, and if any were obtained in contravention of 
these orders, if the transgressor could be pointed out, not 
only were his hard-earned vegetables confiscated, but he 
was severely punished for an infraction of the rule. 
Hamilton was one day lying upon the ground, calling, 
in his weariness and distress, for his mother, and begging 
for some vegetables to eat, for his instinct told him they 
would be better for him than any medicine. Just then 
Duncan drove into the stockade with the daily rations 
of bread, and passed near where Hamilton lay, having 



ANDEESONVILLE. 119 

upon him an overcoat of somewhat better appearance 
than was usual there. Duncan inquired of him what he 
wanted there ? He replied that he wanted some onions, 
and would give any thing for them. Duncan told him 
if he would give him his overcoat he would bring him 
some, and the poor fellow eagerly accepted the offer, and 
took off his coat and gave it him. 

Duncan told Wirz of it, and on the following day, 
when he went in with the bread, Wirz accompanied him. 
He threw two bunches of shalots to Hamilton, exclaiming, 
"There are your onions; I've done my part." Wirz 
stepped up and seized the vegetables, and bore them off 
with him. But he did not stop here ; he had Hamilton 
taken out, and, weak, exhausted as he was, placed him in 
the foot-stocks, and kept him there for twelve hours in 
the broiling sun. He went stark, staring mad ; and, with 
horrid imprecations upon the robber of his coat, mingled 
with piteous appeals to his mother in her far-off home 
— these two thoughts alone rioting in his mind, which in- 
sanity had not driven from their strong-hold — thus he 
lingered and died. ISTot too soon for him, alas ! for death 
resolved all his cares and his pain, while his poor ema- 
ciated body no more needed the garment which heartless 
rascality had deprived him of. 

It has been shown that the quality as well as the 
quantity of the rations was bad and irregular. Some 
days the prisoners received nothing at all, on others a 
short allowance, and again full rations, such as they were. 

The squad to which Thomas H. Kellogg was attached 
originally consisted of ninety men, and so reduced were 
they by starvation, that when the sergeant ordered them 



120 ANDERSONVILLE. 

to form into line, only thirty-two were able to stand up. 
Their inability to do so arose primarily from want of 
food, which had brought on scurvy and diarrhoea ; their 
limbs were so contracted that they could not get up on 
their feet. The stream running through the stockade 
was as filthy as all the wash and excrement from it could 
render it, and the surface of it was covered with grease. 
Out of four hundred men who were captured with him 
more than three hundred died, while the Twenty-fourth 
New York battery, which was captured at Plymouth, 
ISTorth Carolina, and afterward sent for imprisonment to 
Andersonville, was nearly annihilated there through 
starvation and disease. 

It would seem to be almost incredible that such a long- 
continued system of wrong and barbarity could be per- 
sisted in for month after month, with investigations going 
on under orders from the Richmond authorities, and ex- 
aminations under Cobb, without some facts becoming 
known to the Confederate government ; that, when Con- 
federate surgeons have been sworn, where twelve thou- 
sand died, nine thousand six hundred might have been 
saved by using the most ordinary care, some rumors of 
such dreadful mortality must have found their way to 
the ears of those who held the remedy in their hands. 

Incredulity may rest its doubts upon this point, for all 
was known by the authorities at Eichmond, and the suf- 
ferings that we have detailed were preconcerted there. 

From an article in the Richmond Examiiner of the 80th 
of October, 1863, it would appear that the wholesale 
slaughter of Andersonville was designed^ and that the 
Northern prisoners were to be systematically extermi- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 121 

nated by their rebel jailers. That paper recommended, 
under the above date, that '' the Yankee prisoners he put 
luliere the cold iveather and scant fare will thin them out in 
accordance ivith the laws of nature T This was no irre- 
sponsible utterance of wild, murderous counsels by an 
individual fanatic, which passed as they were read, with- 
out carrying weight or influence with them — they were 
the foreshado wings of the mighty crime which was to be 
perpetrated — instigations to be followed of the wholesale 
extermination of the thousands who suffered in conse- 
quence of them. 

As corroborative of this, Henry S. Foote^ a representa- 
tive in the Confederate Congress, has given his testimony 
in a letter dated "Montreal, June 21, 1865." 

" Touching the Congressional report referred to, I have 
this to say : A month or two anterior to the date of said 
report, I learned from a government officer of respecta- 
bility that the prisoners of war at Eichmond and Ander- 
sonville were suffering severely for want of provisions. 
He told me farther that it was manifest to him that a 
systematic scheme was on foot for subjecting these un- 
fortunate men to starvation ; that the commissary gen- 
eral, Mr. ISTorthrup (a most wicked and heartless wretch), 
had addressed a communication to Mr. Seddon, the Sec- 
retary of War, proposing to withhold meat altogether 
from military prisoners then in custody, and to give 
them nothing but bread and vegetables ; and that Mr. 
Seddon had indorsed the document containing this rec- 
ommendation affirmatively. 

"I learned farther that by calling upon Mr. Ould, the 
commissioner for exchange of prisoners, I would be able 

F 



122 ANDERSONVILLE. 

to obtain farther information upon the subject. I went 
to Major Ould immediately, and obtained the desired in- 
formation. Being utterly unwilling to countenance such 
barbarity for a moment — regarding, indeed, the honor of 
the whole South as concerned in the affair, I proceeded 
without delay to the hall of the House of Eepresenta- 
tives, called the attention of that strangely constituted 
body to the subject, and insisted upon an immediate com- 
mittee of investigation." 

But the evidence does not terminate here, for it is in 
our power to show that the Confederate Secretary of 
"War, James A. Seddon, was fully and officially advised 
of the circumstances which have been detailed in these 
pages, and knew as well as any one else the horrible suf- 
fering that his minions were inflicting upon the wretched 
prisoners there. 

Colonel D. T. Chandler, assistant adjutant general and 
inspector general of the rebel army, was specially detailed 
by the War Department, under Seddon, to visit, examine, 
and report upon the condition of the various prison-pens 
in which captured Northern soldiers were confined. This 
detail was made in consequence of the complaints which 
had reached Eichmond that our prisoners were most in- 
humanly and murderously maltreated. Colonel Chand- 
ler was an officer occupying a high position and great 
confidence in the rebel service, and in this mission acted 
with honor, conscientiousness, and ability. His report 
was made through the usual military channel — the office 
of the adj utant general — to the Secretary of War. There 
can be no question that every report from so distingiiished 
an officer, serving on an inspection tour of such import- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 123 

ance, must have been specially and personally submitted 
on its receipt to James A. Seddon, the chief of the War 
Department. 

This report of Colonel Chandler is dated at Anderson- 
ville, August 5th, 1864, and recommends "a change in the 
officer in command of the post. Brigadier General J. W. 
Winder, and the substitution in his place of some one 
who unites both energy and judgment with some feelings 
of humanity and consideration for the welfare and comfort 
(so far as is consistent with their safe-keeping) of the vast 
number of unfortunates placed under his control — some 
one, at least, who does not advocate^ deliberately and in cold 
bloody the propriety of leaving them in their present condition 
imtil their number has been sufficiently reduced by death to 
make the present arrangements suffice for their accommoda- 
tion; who will not consider it a matter for self-laudation, 
boasting that he has never been inside the stockade — • a 
place the horrors ofivhich it is difficult to describe^ and which 
are a disgrace to civilization — the condition of which he 
might, by the exercise of a little energy and judgment, 
even with the limited space at his command, have con- 
siderably improved." 

Such was the language of Colonel Chandler in his spe- 
cial report ; and by all who have had acquaintance with 
the strictly formal and reticent character of official mili- 
tary documents — more especially when an inferior is 
criticising a superior officer — it must be conceded that 
language of bolder or more startling censure has rarely, 
if ever, been employed. Not only did it give technical 
grounds sufficient to call for and justify Greneral Win- 
der's removal, but it was full of an honest and warm in- 



124 ANDEKSONVILLE. 



1 



dignation, sucli as a frank soldier would feel upon wit- 
nessing the horrible misery and destitution that met his 
eyes. It was caused by Winder's remark to Colonel 
Chandler when the latter urged that the prison -pen 
should be enlarged, the water purified, and sheds erected, 
more fuel, wood, and medical stores supplied, that he. 
General Winder, " thought it would be better to let one 
half die, so that they could take care of the remainder 
without trouble !" 

The question recurs, what, on this report, was the ac- 
tion of James A. Seddon, the Secretary of War of the 
rebel government ? Was the monster commanding at 
Andersonville relieved of his charge, and ignominiously 
dismissed the service as a disgrace to humanity and to 
the soldierly profession ? Were any measures taken to 
check what Colonel Chandler had denounced as the pro- 
tracted murder of our prisoners — "deliberately and in 
cold blood" — under a system, as he adds, " the horrors 
of which it is difficult to describe, and which are a dis- 
grace to civilization ?" Any such thoughts were far from 
Seddon's mind, for he was doubtless aware that Winder 
was faithfully discharging the behests of higher author- 
ity ; and so little was the desire of removing or punish- 
ing him on this report of his atrocities, that in a few 
weeks after — as if Colonel Chandler's denunciation had 
been accepted for a testimonial of honor — James A. Sed- 
don issued an order which promoted Winder to be com- 
missary general and commander of all military prisons 
and prisoners throughout the Confederate States ! 

In the light of this evidence, it is very difficult to con- 
ceive how the commander-in-chief of the armies of the 



ANDERSONVILLE. 125 

Confederacy could remain in ignorance of such reports 
as that of Colonel Chandler ; how, as President of the 
Confederate States, he could not but have known that 
such a state of affairs existed, without applying the reme- 
dy which his position placed in his hands and made his 
highest duty ; how, as an officer practically wielding su- 
preme power over all of the affairs of the rebel govern- 
ment, personally interfering in the details and manage- 
ment of every important concern, daily visiting and care- 
fully inspecting the reports and papers of the War Of- 
fice, this report of Colonel Chandler could have escaped 
his scrutiny and not have come to his knowledge, will 
challenge no weak credulity. 

But, for fear that such credulity may find an excuse 
for the Confederate authorities at Eichmond, it will be 
sufficient to know that Colonel Chandler swore that he 
went in person to the Secretary of War and urged that 
his report should be taken up and acted upon, thus bring- 
ing home, without a chance of evasion, a knowledge of 
the hellish atrocities which were in course of enactment 
at Andersonville. 

It is not a pleasing task to be compelled to enlarge 
upon this subject, for it is humiliating to humanity to 
know that men claiming to be civilized, boasting of a 
chivalry and refinement beyond all the rest of the world, 
could, in this nineteenth century, in this age and upon 
American soil, be guilty of a barbarism such as has been 
sketched, and which would have been a reproach to an 
Algerine in the palmiest days of his cruelty. 

The evidence is before the reader, direct and conclu- 
sive, for the facts of this odious guilt are equally proved 
as they are confessed. ' 



126 ANDERSON VILLE. 



CHAPTER XL 

Effect of this Treatment on the Prisoners. — Moral Restraint destroyed. — 
Scenes within the Prison. — Fears ofWirz. — Tunneling. — Robbery and 
Murder. — Executions. 

It will readily be supposed that, under circumstances 
such as have been narrated, where no regard was had for 
the comfort or health of the prisoners, and where the 
simplest and most obvious laws of hygiene were not only 
overlooked, but most systematically disregarded, that a 
corresponding effect would be produced, and exhibit it- 
self in the conduct and in the minds of the prisoners. A 
body of men, counted by tens of thousands, destitute of 
clothing, destitute of shelter, starving, unrestrained by 
any authority beyond what was requisite to keep them 
penned up, except their own unregulated impulses, could 
not be herded together for any great length of time with- 
out manifesting some of the very worst features of human 
nature, and rapidly retrograde to the normal condition 
of the species, and display all the characteristics of sav- 
ages. 

Such, indeed, was the effect produced by the treatment 
of these prisoners at Andersonville. The daily, hourly 
degradation to which they were forced ; the withdrawal 
or withholding of all moral restraint ; the filthy, grovel- 
ing life ^hich they led, uncheered by one solitary hope 
of amendment, slowly sunk them deeper and deeper into 



ANDERSON VILLE. 127 

despondency, turned their manhood into apathy, and de- 
based their courage into brutality. They were converted 
into so many wild beasts, and each was animated but by 
one purpose — sought to accomplish but one object — pro- 
longing their miserable lives by preying upon their com- 
rades in misfortune. 

All of the restraints that education and moral training 
had thrown around them were swept away, conscience 
swung loose from its hold on responsibility, and they act- 
ed as if there was no more human accountability to ham- 
per the full play of every vicious tendency that might 
impel them. There were men confined in that stockade 
who had been well born and tenderly nurtured, who had 
enjoyed all of the kindly influences that good example 
and refined associations generate or suggest, whose edu- 
cations fitted them to adorn society and mingle in the 
higher walks of life, and whose memories of pleasant 
homes, loving mothers, and gentle sisters would even 
there well up in their hearts, to vindicate, as it were, the 
supremacy of their better natures. 

These suffered from the contamination of grosser minds, 
and were sunk to their level ; their integrity was sapped 
by the treacherous effects of constant intercourse, while 
their manliness was overwhelmed by the brutalizing re- 
sults of their imprisonment ; and it would not be too 
harsh a judgment to pronounce the thirty -five thousand 
men there herded together as but one degree removed 
from absolute savages. In some respects they did not 
reach the savage level, for he can boast of his endurance, 
but their manhood was gone ; he can pride himself upon 
his courage, theirs was broken by an accumulation of 



128 ANDEBSONVILLE. 

miseries under which the savage himself would have 
sunk. 

Wirz had carefully marked the gradual development 
of these dangerous tendencies, and was at last satisfied 
that they had culminated into the utter demoralization 
of the wretched subjects which he controlled, and he be- 
gan, coward as he was, to fear their sudden exhibition to- 
ward himself. His visits to the inside of the stockade, 
never frequent, were now seldom made, and then with 
extreme precautions for his own safety. He well appre- 
ciated the danger of thrusting himself into the midst of 
these starving, maddened, reckless men, for he knew that 
his life would not be worth a minute's purchase in the 
hands of these unutterably wronged soldiers, and he was, 
in consequence, seen only upon the platforms of the sen- 
tinels, outside the walls. He was afraid of any unusual 
assemblage of the prisoners, and his orders to the guards 
were imperative to prevent their congregating together, 
and to hinder any combinations for an escape. He kept 
vigilant watch to frustrate attempts at tunneling under 
the stockade, and patrols, armed to the teeth, made fre- 
quent explorations within the prison for that purpose. 

This scrutiny was not always unrewarded, for frequent- 
ly excavations and tunnels were discovered, with chan- 
nels leading from them, in a state of completion which 
would soon insure a free passage to the outside. One 
such was detected more elaborately accomplished than 
any previously attempted. The throat of the passage 
was begun under cover of one of the shanties which 
some of the men had erected for their dwelling. The 
orifice was about three feet in circumference, and was 



ANDERSONVILLE. 129 

sunk nearly twelve feet perpendicularly, commencing 
about forty feet from the side of the stockade posts, where 
it shot off at a right angle toward the posts, with a slight 
inclination downward. The work had advanced a dis- 
tance of nearly sixty feet, and had extended under and 
beyond the stockade, whence it began gradually rising 
toward the surface, and wanted but twelve feet more of 
excavation to have brought it to a successful exit above 
ground. The interior of the horizontal passage was 
nearly six feet in circumference, and the earth removed 
from it was so carefully bestowed, or nsed for plastering 
up shanties, as to have escaped the watchful eyes of Wirz 
and his sentinels. This work had been steadily progress- 
ing for nearly three months, the only tools "used being 
scraps of tin from old cups, buckets, and plates, with 
knives and their hands. Only two men were enabled to 
work at a time as it progressed, while others behind them 
assisted in removing the debris to the throat, others car- 
rying it away in blankets and in the bosoms of their 
shirts, and disposing of it to the best advantage. 

When the discovery was made Wirz was furious. The 
greater portion of the garrison was called to arms, the 
platforms overlooking the stockade were filled with sol- 
diers, each with forty rounds of ball cartridge, while four 
hundred were marched within the gates and drawn np 
two deep, with arms at a ready. A squad proceeded to 
the spot where the excavation was commenced, and ar- 
rested all of the prisoners who were near it and those 
who occupied the shelter where it was begun, while work- 
men and teams were at once summoned to refill the hole, 
at which they labored night and day for three days. 

F2 



130 ANDERSONVILLE. 

The investigation which followed failed to elicit any- 
thing more than the fact itself demonstrated ; but Wirz 
was resolved not to be balked in his vengeance upon some 
one for such a daring attempt to evade his grasp, and, in 
default of finding the real executors of the work, he ar- 
rested the proprietors of the shanty, and proceeded to 
punish them. There were six of them. Their meagre 
rations were reduced to two ounces of bread daily, with 
one pint of water ; nothing else was given them for twen- 
ty-one days. They were placed in the inclined stocks 
for thirty-six hours, with no intermission for rest night 
or day ; and for the remainder of their term of punish- 
ment, nineteen days, they were linked together with chain 
and ball. Two of their number sank under the terrible 
severity of the punishment and died. In order that the 
rest of the prisoners might feel the weight of his power, 
and at the same time be deterred from making any more 
similar attempts, their rations were stopped for one day. 

The operation of all the combined cruelty and oppres- 
sion which has been detailed in these pages so worked 
■upon the mental and physical powers of the prisoners as 
to render a stay in the stockade dangerous even to them- 
selves. It has been remarked that there was no restraint 
thrown around them save the restless impulses of their 
own unregulated passions. Men who were disposed to 
be orderly were rendered riotous by association with, the 
disorderly, while those who were habitually regardless 
of any ruling principle were reduced to unbridled reck- 
lessness of conscience and conduct. 

Scarcely an hour of the day passed at this period that 
robberies of the most flagrant character were not com- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 131 

mitted. The stealing of food and clothes was unremit- 
ting ; nothing was secure from plunder — nothing sacred 
from appropriation. Whatever. the voracity of the out- 
side thieves had spared was doomed to another spoliation 
at the hands of their miserable, half-famished companions 
within the stockade ; and when cunning failed to secure 
any coveted article, force was resorted to to obtain it. 

Toward the close of the year 1864 several murders 
were committed in the prison by an organized band of 
reckless men, who spread terror even among these de- 
spairing, broken-hearted prisoners by their wild outrages. 
To such a pitch had their conduct proceeded, that it be- 
came necessary for the better - disposed class to adopt 
some course by which a stop might be put to excesses 
which threatened to convert the prison into a pandemo- 
nium, and from the danger of which no one felt himself 
free ; they therefore appealed to Wirz for protection. 

He responded by giving them permission to punish 
the aggressors themselves and in their own way, charac- 
teristically suggesting that " if they would hang a thou- 
sand or two he wouldn't care, as it would save him the 
trouble !" 

A court was therefore organized by the prisoners by 
selecting three judges, appointing a prosecutor for the 
republic of wretchedness, and impanneling a jury of 
eighteen to try those accused of the crimes specified. 
Four men were seized and brought before this extem- 
porized court for trial. It was proved that these four 
were the ringleaders in all the murders and robberies 
which had been committed — indeed, were the actual crim- 
inals whose hands were stained with the blood of their 



132 ANDERSONVILLE. 

starving companions. There was but one course left for 
the court to pursue : the guilty ones could not be turned 
out of the stockade, for Wirz would not permit that, and 
it would have been no punishment to give them liberty ; 
they could not be subjected to the ordinary penalties 
which Wirz inflicted, because he reserved for himself the 
luxury of using his own engines to punish those who re- 
belled against ids- authority — they must not be monopo- 
lized for the protection of the prisoners against their own 
members ; they could not consistently and safely be 
turned loose again after having been convicted of such 
heinous crimes, for this would be making a mockery of 
the justice which their fellows had invoked; it was there- 
fore adjudged that they should be hung! 

The day came upon which those miserable men were 
to expiate the crimes of which they had been proven 
guilty. Wirz had ordered a rough gallows to be erected 
within the stockade, and in the presence of all the pris- 
oners, with the sentinels' platforms crowded by soldiers, 
and the adjoining hills lined with curious spectators, ea- 
gerly watching the scene, these four wretched, debased 
men were executed, maintaining to the last their prefer- 
ence for death, even such a death as that, to living such 
a life as they had led in that prison. 

It is a problem for the ethical philosopher to solve 
whether justice had been fairly meted out in this in- 
stance — whether these four were more guilty before 
heaven than he who had brought them by persistent cru- 
elty to the degradation which forced crime upon them? 

In answering it, that man may be considered fortunate 
who is permitted to look upon crime as committed only 



ANDERSOJSrVILLE. 133 

witliin the spheres of enlightened communities, and to 
weigh the influence of the shght temptations which led 
to it. The conclusions to which he must come are un- 
avoidable, and his judgment must go against the trans- 
gressoi\ But place the same individual upon the stand- 
point that the judges and jury in this case occupied, from 
which he has to regard crime as instigated, forced upon 
one, not by the slow growth of an immedicable perversi- 
ty, but by the delinquency and transgression of every 
law by one who controls the very life of the criminal, 
and who has urged its commission almost as a means of 
maintaining life, and he will be perplexed how to decide 
upon the propriety of this act. 

However this may be, the effect of this summary vin- 
dication of personal rights was plainly evident from this 
time forth, and a greater degree of safety for person and 
property began to be felt in the prison. But nothing 
could soften the hard heart of the jailer of Anderson ville, 
or force him to change his policy toward his luckless 
prisoners. Gaunt famine stalked more ghastly within 
and around that pen ; disease continued with increasing 
strides to claim its victims, while the shouts and impreca- 
tions of miserable maniacs harried the ears of the discon- 
solate men who pined away there and foreshadowed their 
own fate. It would be impossible to say how many were 
insane, or how few there were whose intellects were not 
disordered by the treatment they received. 

The recollection of the sights in that prison will haunt 
the mind years after its last post shall have rotted away, 
and grass has grown upon the graves of its humble dead. 
The sight of one whose light of reason has been extin- 



134 ANDERSONVILLE. 

guished is sad at any time, but sadder far is it when the 
mind is forced to an eclipse through cruelty, starvation, 
and disease. 

Within the limits of that twenty-seven acres of peo- 
pled life they could be seen, with idiotic stare and drivel- 
ing simper, wandering about, or gazing in listless apathy 
around; now shouting an insane defiance to some im- 
agined foe ; now stealthily hiding in tattered garments 
some well-polished, often-gnawed bone; now sitting aloof 
while insensate tears glided down their expressionless 
cheeks as some ray from their far-off home lightened up 
their darkened minds, or weakly summoned memory 
back; now tramping to and fro in gloomy haggardness, 
while they raved with incoherent curses, or laughed with 
maniacal glee at a misery which made strong men weep. 
All this and more could be witnessed here day after day, 
until the sights almost became familiar, and ceased to 
awaken the horror their exhibition would otherwise 
suggest. 

To this condition were the prisoners at length reduced. 
Starvation, nakedness, cruel treatment had done their 
worst, and these were the results upon brave and heroic 
men. For they were brave men all ; and they were he- 
roes too, who had taken their lives in their hands — their 
once young and happy lives, bright with the dreams of 
anticipated success, joyous with tender loves — who had 
been calm amidst the roar of musketry, quiet when the 
shrieks of the wounded and dying arose around them on 
the battle-field — who had faced honorable death with a 
smile. 

But here they are, martyrs to a fate which the wildest 



ANDERSONVILLE. 135 

imagination had not pictured, with no soothing encour- 
agement but the empty consolation of deserted homes 
and broken hearts, to which they return in memory, to 
find all the beauty, all the fragrance, all the song depart- 
ed forever, while they wait here in lonely trust until the 
Eest comes to them at last. 



186 ANDERSONVILLE. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Winter of 1864. — Its Kigor. — Personal Experiences. — Escaped Pris- 
oner. — He is saved. — Efforts of the Masons to relieve the Suffering. — 
Success. 

As the montlis of winter approaclied, other misfortune^ 
began to gather around the occupants of that pen, and 
more misery was ready prepared to aid in thinning out 
their already attenuated ranks. The first frost of the 
year occurred on the 25th of September, as a foretaste of 
what was in store as the winter advanced. On the 3d 
and 4th of December the season had clearly marked it- 
self by two days of extreme cold, accompanied with cut- 
ting, freezing winds, while during the nights thick ice 
was made over the surface of still and exposed waters. 
From this period, through January, the severest weather 
was experienced that had ever visited that region of 
country. With all the care and appliances that ingenu- 
ity could suggest or devise, it was utterly impossible for 
the prisoners at Andersonville to maintain themselves in 
any comfort, or shield themselves from the cold, which 
threatened the lives of even the strongest among them. 

The long confinement, the scanty food, poor and unre- 
freshing, had reduced their systems to such a degree that 
the blood within them coursed in feeble, fitful throbbings, 
scarcely bearing life in its limpid secretions. Haggard 
and naked, they were unfit subjects for the rigors of that 
memorable winter, which made strong men draw their 



ANDERSONVILLE. 137 

garments closer around them, or seek tlae friendly shelter 
and warmth of glowing fires. Yet, with all their hag- 
gardness and nakedness, those shrunken forms must en- 
dure the frosts and the chilling blasts with what re- 
sources they best could, upon the exposed and unshel- 
tered hill-side where they were confined. 

With forests of great extent, within whose limits the 
woodman's axe had scarcely made its mark, at a distance 
of but a few hundred feet from the stockade, Nature had 
provided an unlimited supply of fuel of the very best 
character. Nothing was required but the permission of 
Wirz to the prisoners, when they could have supplied 
themselves with that which would in some measure have 
mitigated the terrors of that season. This permission 
was withheld, or, if granted, was accompanied with such 
restraints as to render it a worthless boon when the terms 
were accepted. 

A few men only at a time were allowed to go outside 
to gather wood. The time of these was limited, while 
no tools or axes were provided with which the timber 
could be cut or brought in. Such refuse and decaying 
wood as could be gathered on the ground was all that 
was allowed them, and, as successive parties made their 
daily excursions, so the scanty supply became by degrees 
exhausted in the immediate neighborhood of the prison, 
and necessitated a wider range and a longer time to ob- 
tain the needed fuel. 

The greater the distance to which they were compelled 
to go, the smaller the loads with which they returned, 
and at last it became dif&cult to procure wood enough to 
suffice for the slender cooking which they required. Day 



138 ANDERSONVILLE. 

[ifter day that shrunken, pallid crowd might be seen 
standing in shivering groups over exhausted embers, 
which failed to impart warmth or comfort to their freez- 
ing bodies, while they wistfully gazed at the towering 
trees, which seemed to mock their misery, at a stone's 
throw from them. Wirz was literally carrying out the 
edict of the Richmond Examiner of just one year before, 
and he was permitting " the cold weather to thin them out 
in accordance ivith the laws of Nature T They were thin- 
ned out, poor fellows ! for the dawn of every morning 
would display them lying close huddled together for 
warmth, with here and there the stiffened, frozen form of 
one out of whose attenuated body the breath of life had 
passed, hugging his neighbor, who breathed unconscious 
of the dead mass beside him. 

Wood could have been provided with no expense and 
no trouble. It did not require a printed form of requisi- 
tion upon a quarter-master to obtain it, for even bounte- 
ous Nature had lavishly reared the trees at hand. The 
man who boasted in his defense that he was always ani- 
mated by " an angelic influence" in his treatment of these 
prisoners withheld what the yielding earth had offered, 
and the " angel" looked grimly on as he saw the bodies 
of his frozen victims borne forth, unawakened from their 
last sad sleep. 

And so the winter passed on, the strongest and most 
hopeful breasting the cold and nerving themselves to the 
endurance of what they could neither escape or alle- 
viate. 

Now and then one did escape, preferring the risk of 
the sentinel's bullet or the hound's fangs, of death itself 



ANDERSONVILLE. 189 

outside the prison, to the slow, lingering, but certain, ex- 
tinction which awaited him if he remained there. 

One case of successful escape from the prison fell un- 
der the personal notice of the author, and will be im- 
pressed upon his memory as long as it lasts. 

The night of the 5th of January, 1865, was marked as 
one of the coldest that had been experienced in that 
country for many years. The ground was frozen solid, 
ice covered the standing water, while the biting blasts of 
a north wind penetrated the houses, and sent a chill to the 
hearts of all who listened to its wild moanings amid the 
pine-trees that bowed to its power. The mercury showed 
16° above zero soon after the sun had sunk to his lurid 
couch. The constant lowing of cattle, with the plaintive 
Heatings of sheep, and the restless voices of the huddled 
swine, gave token that the ice king was forth as he is sel- 
dom seen in that region. The North had in reality vis- 
ited and subjugated the South, a forerunner of what was 
to come when its real power should be manifest in its 
armies. 

Midnight had arrived, when a voice was heard, as if in 
distress, asking aid and admittance to shelter. Upon in- 
quiry, it was found to proceed from a Union prisoner, 
who had made his escape from Andersonville three days 
before. In a few moments he was seated by the side of a 
blazing fire, whose heat hardly sufficed to penetrate the 
chilled form which shivered in its glow. He proved to 
be a soldier from Lexington, Kentucky, and who had 
been recaptured once since making his escape, but had 
again freed himself while being returned to his detested 
prison. lEe had heard the far-off baying of the hounds 



140 AISTDEKSONVILLE. 

that had been put upon his track often during that day, 
but Fortune favored his efforts, and he succeeded in elud- 
ing their scent. A friendly negro man whom he en- 
countered divided his pone of corn-bread and bacon with 
him, and gave him directions to the author's house. 

"He's a Yankee from de Norf, and he'll 'sist you sure!" 
said Isham to the wearied, hound-hunted man. 

"Won't he be afraid to help me?" queried the doubt- 
ing fugitive. 

" Bless you L not he. Dere's no one 'bout here he's 
feared of I tell you, boss, he's a real Yankee, an' no mis- 
take." 

And to that Yankee's house the tracked man at last 
came, and found what he feared would be denied him — 
sympathy and material aid. 

The kind-hearted wife exerted herself to provide sub- 
stantial food and hot coffee for her exhausted guest, who 
sat once more at a table, and refreshed himself with the 
comforts of refined life. So long time had he been de- 
prived of the use of knives and forks, that it demanded 
some exertion before he could manipulate to advantage 
with them. But hunger is a master of all formalities, as 
the encouraging smile and moistened eye of the attentive 
hostess urged the soldier to eat, and proved his aptitude 
to learn. 

Not here did she terminate her ministrations to his 
wants, but with keen foresight, such as none but " the 
kind of heart" possess, the good wife and sympathizing 
lady made provision for the soldier's future needs. From 
the smoke-house ample supply of bacon was brought, 
and corn-bread prepared by her own hands, and the hav- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 141 

ersack was filled. Tobacco, matches, and money was 
given to solace liis lonely tramp beyond the lines of dan- 
ger, or to aid in procuring his necessary food. 

And then the gentle eyes scanned the worn, patched 
suit of blue flannel — so worn, indeed, that it would have 
served for a summer's dress from its tenuity, but ill 
adapted to the rigors of that wintry night. Over all was 
fitted the warm clothing of a soldier son, while thick 
stockings and sound shoes were given to protect the soil- 
worn feet. With a well-replenished fire, the wearied man 
laid down to a short rest, and soon sunk into profound 
slumber — deeper, perhaps, than any he had enjoyed since 
he left his Kentucky home. 

Before the dawn of day he was aroused, and his way 
to St. Mark's, Florida, was pointed out, while he was cau- 
tioned to travel only by night. With a God si^eed^ he 
stepped manfully forth into the shadows of the forest, 
lighter of heart and better prepared to stem the troubles 
that were before him until his liberty should be secured. 

When that excellent woman at last returned to her 
rest, an invocation was heard from her pure lips to Him 
who watches over the helpless that the soldier-prisoner 
might be under his protection in his lonely bivouac as 
in his eternal sleep. 

The attention of several masonic bodies in Georgia was 
directed to the destitute condition of brethren of the or- 
der who were confined at Anderson ville, and correspond- 
ing means were taken to relieve their wants and minis- 
ter to their sufferings. The Lodges at Thomasville'and 
Albany were conspicuous in their efforts to seek out and 
aid the masons in prison and hospital. Delegations from 



142 ANDERSONVILLE. 

these bodies went to Andersonville, and, not without dif- 
ficulty, found the names of many who required their fra- 
ternal assistance. Money, clothing, and food was pro- 
vided by the Albany Lodge, and the destitute brothers 
were cheered by the kind attentions of their friends, re- 
lieved by their bounty, solaced by their care, or buried 
with the mystic ceremonies of the order. The Lodge at 
Macon contributed clothing, and rendered such other 
services as their means permitted, while individual mem- 
bers of other Lodges exerted themselves in the cause of 
humanity, and rescued many from their undeserved suf- 
fering. 

It is pleasant to be permitted to record such acts of un- 
selfish benevolence ; for, although the total of those who 
were thus relieved was small in comparison with the vast 
amount of destitution there exhibited, it nevertheless goes 
to swell the aggregate of that noble band who will be 
cheered with the divine salutation, ^'Liasmuch as ye have 
done it to one of these." 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 143 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

The End at Last. — Peace. — Wirz in Fear. — Letter to General Wilson.-^ 
His Apprehension and Trial. — Constitution of the Court. — EfFect of 
the Evidence. — Findings. — Order for Execution. 

And thus the thirteen months of the existence of this 
abode of wretchedness and death wore wearily on to their 
close as the great events of the war reached their culmina- 
tion. 

Changes had occurred in the internal administration 
of the prison, and others assumed the positions which 
their predecessors had vacated. The arch-director of 
prisons had met with a change of mor.e momentous im- 
portance to himself than to any whom he had left be- 
hind him. His commission was revoked. John H. Win- 
der was no longer a brigadier general in the Confederate 
army. He had been summoned to answer for his crimes 
before a court whose jurisdiction could not be questioned, 
and whose judgment was irrevocable. He was dead — 
dead, with all the hideous accumulation of unrepented 
sins which he had scored up against himself there at 
Andersonville. His record was made out by his own 
hand, and he died too soon for human justice, too late 
for divine mercy. His name will go down forever linked 
with the terrible but just censure of Colonel Chandler as 
one ivho advocated murder deliherately and in cold hloodj 
and with the enduring execrations of every man of sen- 
sibility who ever had an hour's intercourse with him. 



144 ANDERSONVILLE. 

The author does not subscribe to the paganism which 
forbids censure of the bad because no good can be uttered 
of the dead, nor will he be misled by the drivel of 
" magnanimity" when he sums up the character of a de- 
liberate torturer and slayer of helpless prisoners of war. 
He accepts the rule as laid down by Carlyle: "Above 
all things, let us rid ourselves of cant;" and, in dismiss- 
ing the man Winder to the infamy which must ever be 
his, he bids farewell to the leading subject in a panorama 
of public horror, which will rival the most revolting of 
Dante's conceptions, because the pictures from his hand 
were real and conceivable. 

The weary months at last reached April in their re- 
curring order, when the sun of the twenty-seventh shone 
down upon the exhausted, degraded remnant who yet 
peopled that filthy stockade. Peace had at length come 
to them, but not in her poetical garb of purity. Her gar- 
ments were defiled as she passed through that inclosure, 
where a holocaust of corruption had been offered up for 
thirteen months; her smile was changed to sadness as 
she gazed upon the wrecks of humanity whose feeble 
voices welcomed her approach. But she bore them the 
tidings of freedom, and from that moment they felt their 
manhood return to them again — they were free at last ! 

The jailer Wirz had continued his residence near the 
stockade with his family, and there the peace found him, 
terrified, trembling at the future that he saw before him. 
His occupation was gone ; his companions in crime had 
left him the sole occupant of the theatre of his past atroci- 
ties, to confront by himself the scorn and vengeance of 
an outraged nation. He quailed before the terrors of the 



ANDERSONVILLE. 145 

storm he had invoked, and the haughty, cruel lord of 
thirty thousand lives sank into the whining suppliant for 
grace to his trebly forfeited, worthless carcase. He ad- 
dressed a letter to Greneral James H. Wilson, command- 
ing at Macon, and sought his protection from the justly 
exasperated prisoners whom he had tortured. He plead 
that he had acted under orders, and should not be held 
accountable for the results. Upon the reception of this 
letter, General Wilson ordered his arrest by Captain 
N'oyes, United States Army, and his transference to Ma- 
con. He was shortly afterward removed to Washington, 
and confined in the Old Capitol Prison, and there de- 
tained. 
In due course the following order was issued : 

Special Orders^ No. 453. 

"War Department, Adjutant General's Office,) 
WasMngton, August 23, 1865. I 

" 3. A special Military Commission is hereby appoint- 
ed to meet in this city at 11 o'clock A.M. on the 23d day 
of August, 1865, or as soon thereafter as practicable, for 
the trial of Henry Wirz, and such other prisoners as may 
be brought before it. 

'' Detail for the Commission : 
^' Major Greneral L. Wallace, U. S. Volunteers. 
^' Brevet Major General G. Mott, U. S. Volunteers. 
"Brevet Major General J. W. Geary, U. S. Volunteers. 
" Brevet Major General L. Thomas, Adjutant General U. 

S. Army. 
" Brigadier General Francis Fessenden, U. S. Volunteers. 
"Brigadier General E. S. Bragg, U S. Volunteers. 

G 



146 ANDERSONVILLE. 

"Brevet Brigadier General John F^Ballier, Colonel 98th 

Pennsylvania Volunteers. 
" Brevet Colonel T. Allcock, Lieutenant Colonel 4th New- 
York Artillery. 
"Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Stibbs, 12th Iowa Volunteers. 
"Colonel N. P. Chipraan, additional aid - de - camp, Judge 
Advocate of the Commission, with such assistants as 
he may select, with the approval of the Judge Advo- 
cate General. 

" The Commission will sit without regard to hours. 
" By order of the President of the United States. 
"E. D. TowNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General." 

Before this court, which was acknowledged to be, be- 
yond cavil, the most talented that had ever been assem- 
bled, and as to rank above exception, the jailer, whose 
current crimes have been delineated, was brought for 
trial. The charges and specifications were read to him. 
It is not considered necessary to give any explanation 
of them, as the reader can judge for himself. They are 
as follows : 

Charge 1. 
Maliciously, willfully, and traitorously, and in aid of 
the then existing armed rebellion against the United 
States of America, on or before the first day of March, 
A.D. 1864, and on divers other days between that day 
and the tenth day of April, 1865, combining, confedera- 
ting, and conspiring together with John H. Winder, Eich- 
ard B. Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Winder, R R Ste- 
venson, and others unknown, to injure the health and de- 



ii 



ANDERSONVILLE. , 

stroy the lives of soldiers in the military serVi^^, 
United States, then held and being prisoners of waf 
in the lines of the so-called Confederate States and in ti- 
military prisons thereof, to the end that the armies of the 
United States might be weakened and impaired, in vio- 
lation of the laws and customs of war. 

Specification. 
In this, that he, the said Henry Wirz, did combine, 
confederate, and conspire with them, the said John H. 
Winder, Kichard B. Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Win- 
der, E. E. Stevenson, and others whose names are un- 
known, citizens of the United States aforesaid, and who 
were then engaged in armed rebellion against the United 
States, maliciously, traitorously, and in violation of the 
laws of war, to impair and injure the health and to de- 
stroy the lives — by subjecting to torture and great suffer- 
ing, by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quar- 
ters, by exposing to the inclemency of winter and to the 
dews and burning sun of summer, by compelling the use 
of impure water, and by furnishing insufficient and un- 
wholesome food — of large numbers of Federal prisoners, 
to wit, the number of thirty thousand, soldiers in the mil- 
itary service of the United States of America, held as 
prisoners of war at Andersonville, in the State of Greorgia, 
within the lines of the so-called Confederate States, on or 
before the first day of March, A.I). 1864, and at divers 
times between that day and the tenth day of April, A.D. 
1865, to the end that the armies of the United States 
might be weakened and impaired, and the insurgents en- 
gaged in armed rebellion against the United States might 



146 ANDERSONVILLE. 

" Brevet Bnd comforted : And he, the said Henry Wirz, 
Seer in the military service of the so-called Confed- 
'ePate States, being then and there commandant of a mili- 
tary prison at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, lo- 
cated by authority of the so-called Confederate States for 
the confinement of prisoners of war, and as such com- 
mandant fally clothed with authority, and in duty bound 
to treat, care, and provide for such prisoners held as 
aforesaid as were or might be placed in his custody, ac- 
cording to the law of war, did, in furtherance of such 
combination, confederation, and conspiracy, and incited 
thereunto by them, the said John H. Winder, Eichard B. 
Winder, Joseph White, W. S. Winder, K. K. Stevenson, 
and others whose names are unknown, maliciously, wick- 
edly, and traitorously confine a large number of such 
prisoners of war, soldiers in the military service of the 
United States, to the amount of thirty thousand men, in 
unhealthy and unwholesome quarters, in a close and 
small area of ground, wholly inadequate to their wants 
and destructive to their health, which he well knew and 
intended ; and while there so confined, during the time 
aforesaid, did, in furtherance of his evil design, and in aid 
of the said conspiracy, willfully and maliciously neglect 
to furnish tents, barracks, or other shelter sufficient for 
their protection from the inclemency of winter and the 
dews and burning sun of summer ; and with such evil 
intent did take and cause to be taken from them their 
clothing, blankets, camp equipage, and other property of 
which they were possessed at the time of being placed in 
his custody ; and with like malice and evil intent, did re- 
fuse to furnish or cause to be furnished food, either of a 



ANDEESONVILLE. 149 

quality or quantity sufficient to preserve health and slis- 
tain life ; and did refuse and neglect to furnish wood suf- 
ficient for cooking in summer, and to keep the said pris- 
oners warm in winter, and did compel the said prisoners 
to subsist upon unwholesome food, and that in limited 
quantities entirely inadequate to sustain health, which he 
well knew ; and did compel the said prisoners to use un- 
wholesome water, reeking with the filth and garbage of 
the prison and prison guard, and the offal and drainage 
of the cook-house of said prison, whereby the prisoners 
became greatly reduced in their bodily strength, and ema- 
ciated and injured in their bodily health, their minds im- 
paired, and their intellects broken ; and many of them, to 
wit, the number of ten thousand, whose names are un- 
known, sickened and died by reason thereof, which he, 
the said Henry Wirz, then and there well knew and in- 
tended ; and so knowing and evilly intending, did refuse 
and neglect to provide proper lodgings, food, or nourish- 
ment for the sick, and necessary medicine and medical 
attendance for the restoration of their health, and did 
knowingly, willfully, and maliciously, in furtherance of 
his evil designs, permit them to languish and die from 
want of care and proper treatment ; and the said Henry 
Wirz, still pursuing his evil purposes, did permit to re- 
main in the said prison, among the emaciated sick and 
languishing living, the bodies of the dead, until they be- 
came corrupt and loathsome, and filled the air with fetid 
and noxious exhalations, and thereby greatly increased 
the unwholesomeness of the prison, insomuch that great 
numbers of said prisoners, to wit, the number of one 
thousand, whose names are unknown, sickened and died 



150 ANDERSONVILLE. 

by reason thereof: And the said Henry Wirz, still pur- 
suing his wicked and cruel purpose, wholly disregarding 
the usages of civilized warfare, did, at the time and place 
aforesaid, maliciously and willfully subject the prisoners 
aforesaid to cruel, unusual, and infamous punishment upon 
slight, trivial, and fictitious pretenses, by fastening large 
balls of iron to their feet, and binding large numbers of 
the prisoners aforesaid closely together, with large chains 
around their necks and feet, so that they walked with the 
greatest difficulty; and, being so confined, were subject- 
ed to the burning rays of the sun, often without food or 
drink for hours and even days, from which said cruel 
treatment large numbers, to wit, the number of one hund- 
red, whose names are unknown, sickened, fainted, and 
died : And he, the said Wirz, did further cruelly treat 
and injure said prisoners by maliciously confining them 
within an instrument of torture called "the stocks," thus 
depriving them of the use of their limbs, and forcing 
them to lie, sit, and stand for many hours without the 
power of changing position, and being without food or 
drink, in consequence of which many, to wit, the number 
of thirty, whose names are unknown, sickened and died : 
And he, the said Wirz, still wickedly pursuing his evil 
purpose, did establish and cause to be designated within 
the prison inclosure containing said prisoners a "dead 
line," being a line around the inner face of the stockade, 
or wall inclosing said prison, and about twenty feet dis- 
tant from and within said stockade ; and having so es- 
tablished said dead line, which was in many places an 
imaginary line, and in many other places marked by in- 
secure and shifting strips of boards nailed upon the top 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 151 

of small and insecure stakes or posts, he, the said Wirz, 
instructed the prison guard stationed around the top of 
said stockade to fire upon and kill any of the prisoners 
aforesaid who might touch, fall upon, pass over, or under, 
or across the said "dead line." Pursuant to which said 
orders and instructions, maliciously and needlessly given 
by said Wirz, the said prison guard did fire upon and 
kill a large number of said prisoners, to wit, the number 
of about three hundred. And the said Wirz, still pur- 
suing his evil purpose, did keep and use ferocious and 
*bloodthirsty beasts, dangerous to human life, called blood- 
hounds, to hunt down prisoners of war aforesaid who 
made their escape from his custody, and did, then and 
there, willfully and maliciously suffer, incite, and encour- 
age the said beasts to seize, tear, mangle, and maim the 
bodies and limbs of said fugitive prisoners of war, which 
the said beasts, incited as aforesaid, then and there did, 
whereby a large number of said prisoners of war who, dur- 
ing the time aforesaid, made their escape and were recap- 
tured, and were by the said beasts then and there cruelly 
and inhumanly injured,' insomuch that many of said pris- 
oners, to wit, the number of about fifty, died : And the 
said Wirz, still pursuing his wicked purpose, and still 
aiding in carrying out said conspiracy, did use and cause 
to be used, for the pretended purpose of vaccination, im- 
pure and poisonous vaccine matter, which said impure 
and poisonous matter was then and there, by the direc- 
tion and order of said Wirz, maliciously, cruelly, and 
wickedly deposited in the arms of many of said prison- 
ers, by reason of which large numbers of them, to wit, 
one hundred, lost the use of their arms, and many of 



152 ANDERSONVILLE. 

them, to wit, about the number of two hundred, were so 
injured that they soon thereafter died : All of which he, 
the said Henry Wirz, well knew and maliciously intend- 
ed, and in aid of the then existing rebellion against the 
United States, with the view to assist in weakening and 
impairing the armies of the United States, and in fur- 
therance of the said conspiracy, and with the full knowl- 
edge, consent, and connivance of his co-conspirators afore- 
said, he, the said Wirz, then and there did. 

Charge 2. 
Murder, in violation of the laws and customs of war. 

Specification 1. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the eighth day of July, A.D. 1864, then and there 
being commandant of a prison there located by the au- 
thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, willfully, and of 
his malice aforethought, did make an assault, and he, the 
said Henry Wirz, a certain pistol called a revolver then 
and there loaded and charged with gunpowder and bul- 
lets, which said pistol the said Henry Wirz in his hand 
then and there held, to, against, and upon a soldier be- 
longing to the army of the United States, in his, the said 
Henry Wirz's, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
is unknown, then and there feloniously, and of his malice 



ANDERSONVILLE. 153 

aforethought, did shoot and discharge, inflicting upon the 
body of the soldier aforesaid a mortal wound with the 
pistol aforesaid, in consequence of which said mortal 
wound, murderously inflicted by the said Henry Wirz, 
the said soldier thereafter, to wit, on the ninth day of 
July, A.D. 1864, died. 

Specification 2. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an ofi&cer in the mil- 
itary service of the so-called Confederate States of Amer- 
ica, at Anderson ville, in the State of Greorgia, on or about 
the twentieth day of September, A.D. 1864, then and 
there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, willfully, and of 
his malice aforethought, did jump upon, stamp, kick, 
bruise, and otherwise injure with the heels of his boots, 
a soldier belonging to the army of the United States in 
his, the said Henry Wirz's, custody as a prisoner of war, 
whose name is unknown, of which said stamping, kick- 
ing, and bruising, maliciously done and inflicted by the 
said Wirz, he, the said soldier, soon thereafter, to wit, on 
the twentieth day of September, A.D. 1864, died. 

Specification 3. 

In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Anderson ville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the thirteenth day of June, A.D. 1864, then and 

G2 



154 ANDERSONVILLE. 

there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did make an assault, and he, the said Henry 
Wirz, a certain pistol called a revolver then and there 
loaded and charged with gunpowder and bullets, which 
said pistol the said Henry Wirz in his hand then and 
there had and held, to, against, and upon a soldier be- 
longing to the army of the United States, in his, the said 
Henry Wirz's, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
is unknown, then and there feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did shoot and discharge, inflicting upon the 
body of the soldier aforesaid a mortal wound with the pis- 
tol aforesaid, in consequence of which said mortal wound, 
murderously inflicted by the said Henry Wirz, the said 
soldier immediately, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 

Specification 4. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an of&cer in the 
military service of the so - called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the thirtieth day of May, A.D. 1864, then and there 
being commandant of a prison there located by the au- 
thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did make an assault, and he, the said Henry 
Wirz, a certain pistol called a revolver then and there 



ANDERSONVILLE. 155 

loaded and charged with gunpowder and bullets, which 
said pistol the said Henry Wirz in his hand then and 
there had and held, to, against, and upon a soldier be- 
longing to the army of the United States, in his, the said 
Henry Wirz's, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
is unknown, then and there feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did shoot and discharge, inflicting upon the 
body of the soldier aforesaid a mortal wound with the 
pistol aforesaid, in consequence of which said mortal 
wound, murderously inflicted by the said Henry Wirz, 
the said soldier, on the thirtieth day of May, A.D. 1864, 
died. 

Specification 5. 

In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an oflicer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the twentieth day of August, A.D. 1864, then and 
there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did confine and bind within an instrument 
of torture called "the stocks," a soldier belonging to the 
army of the United States, in his, the said Henry Wirz's, 
custody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, in 
consequence of which said cruel treatment, maliciously 
and murderously inflicted as aforesaid, he, the said sol- 
dier, soon thereafter, to wit, on the thirtieth day of Au- 
gust, A.D. 1864, died. 



156 ANDEESONVILLE. 

Specification 6. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the first day of February, A.D. 1865, then and there 
being commandant of a prison there located by t*he au- 
thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did confine and bind within an instrument 
of torture called "the stocks," a soldier belonging to the 
army of the United States, in his, the said Henry Wirz's, 
custody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, in 
consequence of which said cruel tifeatment, maliciously 
and murderously inflicted as aforesaid, he, the said sol- 
dier, soon thereafter, to wit, on the sixth day of Februa- 
ry, A.H. 1864, died. 

Specification 7. 

In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the twentieth day of July, A.D. 1864, then and 
there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did fasten and chain together several per- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 157 

sons, soldiers belonging to the army of the United States 
in his, the said Henry Wirz's, custody as prisoners of war, 
whose names are unknown, binding the necks and feet 
of said prisoners closely together, and compelling them 
to carry great burdens, to wit, large iron balls chained to 
their feet, so that, in consequence of the said cruel treat- 
ment inflicted upon them by the said Henry Wirz as 
aforesaid, one of said soldiers, a prisoner of war as afore- 
said, whose name is unknown, on the twenty -fifth day of 
July, A.D. 1864, died. 

Specification 8. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the fifteenth day of May, A.D. 1864, then and there 
being commandant of a prison there located by the au- 
thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, willfully, and of 
his malice aforethought, did order a rebel soldier whose 
name is unknown, then on duty as a sentinel or guard to 
the prison of which said Henry Wirz was commandant 
as aforesaid, to fire upon a soldier belonging to the army 
of the United States in his, the said Henry Wirz's, cus- 
tody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown ; and 
in pursuance of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously 
and murderously given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel 
soldier, did, with a musket loaded with gunpowder and 
bullet, then and there fire at the said soldier so as afore- 



158 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

said held as a prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mor- 
tal wound with the musket aforesaid, of which he, the 
said prisoner, soon thereafter, to wit, on the day afore- 
said, died. 

Specification 9. ^ 

In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the first day of July, A.D. 1864, then and there be- 
ing commandant of a prison there located by the author- 
ity of the said so-called Confederate States for the con- 
finement of prisoners of war taken and held as such from 
the armies of the United States of America, while acting 
as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice afore- 
thought, did order a rebel soldier, whose name is un- 
known, then on duty as a sentinel or guard to the prison 
of which said Wirz was commandant as aforesaid, to fire 
upon a soldier belonging to the army of the United 
States, in his, the said Henry Wirz's, custody as a pris- 
oner of war, whose name is unknown ; and in pursuance 
of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously and murderous- 
ly given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel soldier, did, with 
a musket loaded with gunpowder and bullet, then and 
there fire at the said soldier so as aforesaid held as a 
prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mortal wound with 
the said musket, of which he, the said prisoner, soon there- 
after, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 

Specification 10. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 



ANDERSONVILLE. 159 

military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the twentieth day of August, A.D. 1864, then and 
there being commandant of a prison there located by the 
authority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did order a rebel soldier, whose name is un- 
known, then on duty as a sentinel or guard to the prison 
of which said Wirz was commandant as aforesaid, to fire 
upon a soldier belonging to the army of the United 
States, in his, the said Henry Wirz's, custody as a pris- 
oner of war, whose name is unknown ; and in pursuance 
of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously and murderous- 
ly given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel soldier, did, with 
a musket loaded with gunpowder and bullet, then and 
there fire at the said soldier so as aforesaid held as a 
prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mortal wound with 
the said musket, of which he, the said prisoner, soon there- 
after, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 

Sjpecification 11. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so - called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the first day of July, A.D. 1864, then and there be- 
ing commandant of a prison there located by the author- 
ity of the said so-called Confederate States for the con- 
finement of prisoners of war taken and held as such from 
the armies of the United States of America, while acting 



160 ANDERSONVILLE. 

as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice afore- 
thought, did cause, incite, and urge certain ferocious and 
bloodthirst}^ animals called bloodhounds to pursue, at- 
tack, wound, and tear in pieces a soldier belonging to the 
army of the United States in his, the said Henry Wirz's, 
custody as a prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, 
and in consequence thereof the said bloodhounds did 
then and there, with the knowledge, encouragement, and 
instigation of him, the said Wirz, maliciously and murder- 
ously given by him, attack and mortally wound the said 
soldier, in consequence of which said mortal wound he, 
the said prisoner, soon thereafter, to wit, on the sixth day 
of July, A.D. 1864, died. 

Specification 12. 
In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the twenty-seventh day of July, A.D. 1864, then 
and there being commandant of a prison there located 
by the authority of the said so-called Confederate States 
for tne conj&nement of prisoners of war taken and held 
as such from the armies of the United States of America, 
while acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his 
malice aforethought, did order a rebel soldier, whose 
name is unknown, then on duty as a sentinel or guard to 
the prison of which said Wirz was commandant as afore- 
said, to fire upon a soldier belonging to the army of the 
United States, in his, the said Henry Wirz's, custody as a 
prisoner of war, whose name is unknown, and in pursu- 
ance of said order so as aforesaid, maliciously and mur- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 161 

derously given as aforesaid, he, the said rebel soldier, did, 
with a musket loaded with gunpowder and bullet, then 
and there fire at the said soldier so as aforesaid held as a 
prisoner of war, inflicting upon him a mortal wound with 
the said musket, of which said mortal wound he, the said 
prisoner, soon thereafter, to wit, on the day aforesaid, died. 

S]}edfication 13. 

In this, that the said Henry Wirz, an officer in the 
military service of the so-called Confederate States of 
America, at Andersonville, in the State of Georgia, on or 
about the third day of August, A.D. 1864, then and there 
being commandant of a prison there located by the au- 
thority of the said so-called Confederate States for the 
confinement of prisoners of war taken and held as such 
from the armies of the United States of America, while 
acting as said commandant, feloniously, and of his malice 
aforethought, did make an assault upon a soldier belong- 
ing to the army of the United States, in his, the saicj 
Henry Wirz's, custody as a prisoner of war, whose name 
is unknown, and with a pistol called a revolver, then and 
there held in the hands of the said Wirz, did beat and 
bruise said soldier upon the head, shoulders, and breast, 
inflicting thereby mortal wounds, from which said beat- 
ing and bruising aforesaid, and mortal wounds caused 
thereby, the said soldier soon thereafter, to wit, on the 
fourth day of August, A.D. 1864, died. 

By order of the President of the United States. 

K P. Chipman, Colonel and A. A. D. C, 
Judge Advocate. 



162 ANDERSON VILLE. 

To the above charges the prisoner put in pleas in bar 
to the effect, 

1st. That he had been offered protection by General 
J. H. Wilson, and that he should not be held a prisoner. 
The accused accepted the offer, and claims to have been 
since held in violation of his personal liberty. 

2d. He denied the jurisdiction of the court to try him. 

3d. That the war being ended and civil law restored, 
there is no military law under which he could be tried. 

4th. He moved to quash the charges for vagueness as 
to time, place, and manner of the offenses. 

5th. That he had been on the 21st of August put upon 
trial to these charges, and that the court had been broken 
up without his agency or consent. Having once been 
put in jeopardy, he can not now be arraigned as before, 
but is entitled to an acquittal. 

6th. He claimed a discharge, because as an officer in 
the Confederate army he was entitled to the terms agreed 
to between Generals Sherman and Johnston upon the 
surrender of the latter. 

These several pleas, except as to the jurisdiction of the 
court, were overruled, and the prisoner then put in the 
plea of "Not Guilty." 

To sustain the charges there were examined one hund- 
red and seven witnesses. The trial was concluded on 
the 4th of November, having continued for seventy-three 
consecutive days. 



ANUERSONVILLE. 163 



CHAPTER XIY. 

Argument of Judge Advocate. 

May it please the Court : 

Deeply sensible of tlie importance and solemnity with 
which you have clothed this trial, and quickened, as I 
know you are, to a high sense of duty by the obligation 
you have taken to " well and truly try and determine, 
according to the evidence, the matter now before you be- 
tween the United States of America and the prisoner to 
be tried, and to duly administer justice according to your 
conscience, the best of your understanding, and the cus- 
tom of war," no word of mine is needed to increase the 
impressiveness of this occasion. 

In many of its aspects and bearings this trial presents 
features more startling, more extraordinary, and more 
momentous than are found in the whole annals of juris- 
prudence. The charges and specifications here laid ac- 
cuse this prisoner and other persons, named and un- 
named, with having " maliciously, traitorously, and in vio- 
lation of the laws of war, conspired to impair and injure 
the health, and to destroy the lives, by subjecting to tor- 
ture and great suffering, by confining in unhealthy and 
unwholesome quarters, by exposing to the inclemency 
of winter, to the dews and burning sun of summer, by 
compelling the use of impure water, and by furnishing 
insufficient and unwholesome food, of large numbers of 



164 ANDERSONVILLE. 

soldiers in the military service of the United States, held 
as prisoners of war at Anderson ville, Georgia, by the so- 
called Confederate States of America, to the end that the 
armies of the United States might be weakened and im- 
paired, and the insurgents engaged in armed rebellion 
against the United States might be aided and com- 
forted." 

I invoke, gentlemen, your calm deliberation, your most 
dispassionate and humane judgment, while I unfold the 
proofs of guilt. 

In a field so broad, presenting so many issues and in- 
volving so many persons, it has been a question of grave 
thought with me how to present the argument in this 
case, my desire being only to give to the Court a per- 
spicuous and faithful analysis of the testimony, nothing 
extenuating, and setting down naught in malice. 

With this view, I have thought it best to notice, 

1st. Such legal objections as have been made to the 
Commission as a judicial tribunal, and such other objec- 
tions as may be deemed worthy of notice touching the 
manner in which the case has been tried. 

2d. To present a truthful analysis of the testimony, 
without regard to the responsibilities of the parties, for 
the purpose of ascertaining, as nearly as language can 
portray them, the horrors of Andersonville, that we may 
be prepared to appreciate fully the fearful responsibility 
of those inculpated by the evidence. 

8d. To examine charge first, alleging conspiracy ; in 
this connection showing the extent of the conspiracy, its 
purposes, and the criminality of each of the conspirators ; 
and. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 165 

4th. To show the guilt of the prisoner at the bar under 
charge second, alleging murder in violation of the laws 
of war. 

Jurisdiction of the Court. 

Among the numerous special pleas filed by the coun- 
sel denying the right of the court to try the prisoner, 
there is but one, I believe, which has not been abandoned : 
this is the plea to the jurisdiction. 

I can hardly suppose that any member of this Com- 
mission entertains a doubt on this point, yet I do not feel 
at liberty to pass unnoticed a question so seriously made, 
and about which honest and loyal men differ. If there 
be neither law, safe precedent, nor right upon which to 
base this proceeding, then it is a serious assumption of 
power, and alike dangerous to yourselves and the pris- 
oner, and one in the exercise of which the order of his 
excellency the President will not protect you. While I 
have yet to read the adverse opinion of a single lawyer 
given outside the court-room who speaks from the stand- 
point of one who knows from the teachings of experience 
how strong has been, and is still, the necessity of check- 
ing and punishing crimes against the laws of war com- 
mitted in rebellious districts during and in aid of rebel- 
lion against the government, yet it must be conceded 
that there is color of reason in the argument, and it is 
because with great persistency your right to proceed is 
denied that I shall presume to address myself to this 
question. 

As we recede from a state of actual war and approach 
a condition of profound peace, we doubtless travel away 



166 ANDERSONVILLE. 

from the corner-stone upon whicli the Military Commis- 
sion as a judicial tribunal rests ; but that your right to 
try the case before you is disturbed by a mere suspension 
of hostilities on the part of rebels in the field, while the 
spirit of rebellion is still rampant, I do not for a mo- 
ment suppose, and in a very brief resume of the argu- 
ment on the subject I hope to make it so appear. As I 
view this question of jurisdiction, it is one of both law 
and fact, to determine which each case must rest upon 
its own merit. 

It involves a question of law in determining whether 
a court of this kind can be legally constituted, and a 
question of fact as to whether the present case can be 
thus tried ; for a military court may be properly consti- 
tuted, yet the case brought before it not properly triable 
by it. 

If this be true, the subject may be disposed of in the 
examination of the following questions : 1st. Has the 
President of the United States the constitutional power 
to convene a Military Commission for the trial of milita- 
ry offenses committed in time of war ? 2d. Is the case 
triable by a Military Commission ? 

I believe it is not claimed by any that the power as- 
sumed by the President in Convening this Commission 
for the purpose named in the order dwells in him except 
in time of war and great public danger, or during insur- 
rection or rebellion. 

Your jurisdiction is a special one, resting upon no 
written law, but derived wholly from the war powers of 
the President and Congress, which are themselves deriv- 
able from the Constitution. If it can bo shown to safely 



ANDERSONVILLE. 167 

rest upon these, you become invested not only with a 
right, but a high duty to sustain it in due obedience to 
the proper order of your commander-in-chief. On an 
examination of the opinions expressed against the right 
claimed, you will discover the argument rests upon the 
negative declarations or prohibitory clauses of our funda- 
mental law, denying to Congress the exercise of certain 
powers, as, for example, " no person shall be held to an- 
swer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on 
presentment or indictment of a grand jury," etc. ; " in all 
criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right 
of a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury," etc. 
(Articles Y. and VI., Amendments to the Constitution); 
" the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, 
shall be by jury," etc. (Art. II., Sect. 2, Constitution). 

Whatever else may be brought into the argument, 
these and kindred clauses are the real source of com- 
plaint whence a misguided loyalty, a supertechnical judg- 
ment have found reason for withholding this approval 
of the measures adopted by the government to the Mili- 
tary Commission to aid in suppressing a rebellion for its 
overthrow. 

And hence you are told gravely the act of the Presi- 
dent is a usurpation of power — this court without a legal 
existence — ^your proceedings a nullity. For a moment 
let us try and ascertain the purpose of those who framed 
the Constitution, and by fair interpretation arrive at the 
true meaning of that great chart of liberty. 

Alexander Hamilton wrote at the time the Constitu- 
tion was being canvassed before the people for final 
adoption, " The circumstances that endanger the safety 



168 ANDERSONVILLE. 

of nations are infinite, and for this reason no constitution- 
al shackles can wisely be imposed on the power to which 

the care of it is committed This is one of those 

truths which, to a correct and unprejudiced mind, carries 
its own evidence along with it, and may be obscured, but 
can not be made plainer by argument or reasoning. The 
means ought to be proportioned to the end; the person 
from whose agency the attainment of any end is expect- 
ed ought to possess the means by which it is to be at- 
tained." — Federalist^ No. 23. 

Mr. Madison, in speaking of the impossibility of antici- 
pating the exigencies which might arise, and the futility 
of legislating for what could not be anticipated, at the 
same time that the powers as granted to the President 
and Congress are now ample for every emergency, says, 
*' It is vain to impose constitutional barriers to the im- 
pulse of self-preservation. It is worse than in vain, be- 
cause it plants in the Constitution itself necessary usur- 
pations of power." — Ibid., No. 41. Many years later, and 
after its adoption, with such light flooded upon it as the 
great minds of those early days could shed, Mr. Adams, 
in unequivocal phrase, enunciated the same idea. In 
speaking of the authority of Congress in time of war, he 
says, " All the powers incident to war are by necessary 
implication conferred upon the government of the United 
States There are, then, in the authority of Con- 
gress and of the executive, two classes of powers, alto- 
gether different in their nature, and often imcompatible 
with each other — the war power and the peace power. 
The peace power is limited by regulations and restricted 
by provisions prescribed within the Constitution itself. 



ANDERSON VILLE. 169 

The war power is limited only by the laws and usages 
of nations. 

"This power is tremendous: it is strictly constitution- 
al, but it breaks down every barrier so anxiously erected 
for the protection of liberty, of property, and of life." 

These are bold words, uttered when civil war was not 
impending, when a powerful rebellion to overthrow this 
great nation could hardly have been anticipated — the 
opinion of a great mind and a pure patriot, with judg- 
ment free from tyranny of partisan clamor, they come to 
us with all the force of law itself 

Do you find difficulty in reconciling these constitu- 
tional incompatibilities? Your statute punishes assault 
and battery ; yet a law underlying the statute, not ex- 
pressed, says you may resist force with force, and this 
well-grounded rule will allow you to defend yourself 
even to the slaying of your antagonist. Necessity knows 
no law inadequate to its demands, and self-preservation 
antedates all laws. 

Who shall say that a government in whose perpetua- 
tion rest the hopes of the world ; a Constitution broad 
enough and liberal enough to protect the rights of all 
over whom it reaches ; a people whose confidence in the 
perfection of this form of government four years of in- 
ternecine war have not shaken — who shall say that 
these are denied nature's first law ; no, those lawgivers 
and wise men of olden and modern times spoke trulj^ 
when they laid the doctrine down that the principle of 
self-preservation belongs to nations no less than to indi- 
viduals, and that it is not in the power of a nation to 
cede away this right. 

H 



170 ANDERSONVILLE. 

The Supreme Court of the United States has in nu- 
merous decisions declared that Congress and the execu- 
tive possess the right to do whatever the public safety 
may require to suppress rebellion or repel invasion (4 
Wheaton, 420 ; 12 Wheaton, 119-128 ; 8 Cranch, 15). 

This opinion was entertained by the fathers of the Con- 
stitution, and is found embodied in Congressional legisla- 
tion as early as 1792, reiterated in 1795 and 1807, which 
seem to have been statutes made to meet just such an 
emergency as this war brought upon us. (In statutes at 
large, vol. ii., p. 264, 424 ; vol. iv., p. 419.) 

In 12th Wheaton (Martin vs. Mott), Mr. Justice Story, 
in an opinion sustaining the constitutionality of these 
laws, says : " The President is the exclusive judge of the 
exigency, and his action must be conclusive of the exi- 
gency," thus taking from the Supreme Court the right 
to impeach the President's judgment. This same opinion 
is sustained in Luther vs. Borden (Howard, 42, 43). 

I suppose it will not be denied that war changes the 
relations of all parties brought into antagonism as bellig- 
erents by it. No one can attack me without forfeiting 
his right for redress if I injure him by proper resistance 
without resorting to the forms of law to make him keep 
the peace, and no one can levy war upon our govern- 
ment without placing himself beyond the protecting segis 
of the Constitution. 

It must be remembered, when objection is made to the 
exercise of this necessary power by the President, that 
what might be a good plea for a loyal citizen who has 
committed a civil offense against the criminal statutes of 
the land, is not a good plea for a traitor who is on trial 



ANDERSONVILLE. 171 

for the commission of a military offense against the laws 
of war. 

As we are endeavoring to determine whether the 
President can by right exercise the power to organize a 
court for the trial of military offenses committed by those 
not in the military service, it may not be necessary to 
pursue this line of argument farther. Let me, however, 
place by antithesis some things expressly prohibited in 
the Constitution, but which is generally conceded may 
be done in time of war. 

*' The United States shall guarantee to every state a 
republican form of government. . . . and shall protect 
each of them against invasion" (Constitution, Article 
lY., Section 4) ; yet the whole power of the government 
has been concentrated in one grand invasion of the South 
for four years. 

" The right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
houses, papers, etc., against search, etc., shall not be vio- 
lated, and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause 
supported by oath," etc. (Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion, Article lY.) ; yet I suspect an action of trespass 
would not lie against the officer who broke open certain 
escritoirs, bringing to light the proofs of conspiracies en- 
tered into by leading rebels South and North to poison, 
burn, assassinate. 

" No soldier, in time of war, shall be quartered in any 
house without the consent of the owner but in a manner 
to be prescribed by law" (Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion, Article III.) ; yet it was hardly expected that our 
generals in an enemy's country would consult the stat- 
utes "in such case made and provided." 



172 ANPERSONVILLE. 

" The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall 
not be infringed" (Ibid., Article II.) ; yet that general or 
executive who would, fearing to violate this right, permit 
the Knights of the Golden Circle or any other hostile 
combination to organize and menace the government, 
could hardly defend himself before his country. 

"The freedom of speech shall not be abridged" (Ibid., 
Article II.) ; yet who would hesitate to say that the in- 
citer of treason by speech is no less a traitor than he who 
raises his hand against his government? 

"Private property shall not be taken without just 
compensation" (Ibid., Article Y.) ; yet during the rebel- 
lion millions of dollars' worth have been seized and used 
for military purposes without any process of law what- 
ever, and millions more have been libeled under the Con- 
fiscation Act of Congress, and converted to public use 
without just compensation. Who so bold as to deny the 
principle upon which this has been done ? 

Article IV., Section 11, of the Constitution provides 
for the recapture of slaves escaping to free states ; and the 
Supreme Court of the United States has also pledged 
the Federal government to protect the right thus se- 
cured to slaveowners ; against and in violation of which 
rises like a pillar of fire the Proclamation of Freedom, 
apotheosizing its author — the crowning glory of his ad- 
ministration — the highest proof that our cause is ap- 
proved in the Forum coyiscientioe. How can there be such 
antagonism in our Magna Charta ? How are these things 
defensible? They are the incompatibilities of which Mr. 
Madison speaks. 

We see here the harmony, at tlic same time the con- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 173 

flict, between the war powers and the peace powers of 
which Mr. Adams speaks; and there is presented in 
strong light the adaptation of means to ends which Mr. 
Hamilton insists upon; and, above all, that inherent 
power which spurns all barriers, and grounds itself upon 
great first principles ; dwells always with the source of 
all power, and is inseparable from it — the people ; and 
declares as fearlessly as it battles that, in times of war, 
of great public danger, laws and constitutions are silent 
if they stand in the way of the nation's life. 

But it is said that Congress may have the power to 
create Military Commissions ; yet, as it has not done so, 
or conferred that right upon the President, it is therefore 
an unwarrantable assumption. 

It seems to me that, as the Constitution expressly con- 
fers no power of this kind upon Congress, it matters little 
whether Congress or the President exercise it; and if 
one can do so, with equal right can the other. 

The whole question still rests upon necessity, to meet 
which the neglect of one will not excuse the other. Still 
inquiring whether this can be done in any case, let us 
recur a moment to opinions contemporaneously with the 
Constitution. 

We began our struggle for independence under the 
Articles of Confederation, and it is well known that the 
colonies reserved all rights to themselves not expressly 
delegated to the Confederacy. 

Then, as now, there were traitors, whose crimes, par- 
taking of the nature of military offenses, were made pun- 
ishable by military courts. If you will examine the 
legislation of tlio country, it will be found that, from 1775 



174 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



down to the present time, autliority has been conferred 
upon military courts to try civilians for the commission 
of certain offenses. (See Acts of Congress, 7th ISTovem- 
ber, 1775 ; l7th June, 1776 ; 27th February, 1778 ; 23d 
April, 1800; 10th April, 1806; 13th February, 1862; 
17th July, 1862.) Congress conferred this jurisdiction 
on both courts-martial and Military Commissions, until 
during this war, however, resorting to the court-martial. 

Now it has been frequently decided by the Supreme 
Court that a court-martial is a tribunal provided for in 
the rules and articles of war, but with a jurisdiction lim- 
ited' to military persons as well as military offenses, so 
that it is as much a usurpation to try a civilian by court- 
martial as before a Military Commission. Admitting 
this, we find ourselves strongly fortified by these early 
enactments, especially in the light of the decision of the 
Supreme Court. 

Stewart vs. Laird (2 Cranch, 299) decides that " a con- 
temporary exposition or construction of the Constitu- 
tion, acquiesced in for a period of years, fixes it beyond 
the reach of doubt ;" and we are compelled to conclude 
that the power assumed grows out of a necessity of which 
Congress or the President must judge at the time. 

Many things are proper to be done in time of peace 
which in time of war become high crimes. No criminal 
code and no civil criminal tribunal can reach these ; they 
are incident to, and grow out of, a state of war. 

Every student of history, whether or not he may have 
studied law, understands this. It is a timid loyalty, a 
yielding to doubtful and hasty clamor, that during this 
war questioned a practice sanctioned by all nations, and 



ANDERSON VILLE. 175 

begun on this continent contemporary with the Consti- 
tution. 

But, again, a declaration of war institutes a code of 
laws for the government of the belligerents known as 
the law of nations. And this is true of an insurrection 
as well as of foreign war, so tha't we are to look more to 
the customs of nations than to our own Constitution for 
our guides. We have enumerated some of our constitu- 
tional guarantees intended to protect all persons, but it 
will hardly be pretended that rebels, war-traitors, assas- 
sins in aid of rebellion, banditti, guerrillas, and spies 
could plead them, or derive any immunity by them. The 
true guide and the highest law is the law of war and the 
customs of civilized nations. From a recent opinion of 
the present attorney general, given in support of the com- 
mission for the trial of the President's assassins, taking 
this view, I extract the following: ^' A military tribunal 
exists under and according to the Constitution in time 
of war. Congress may prescribe how all such tribunals 
are to be constituted, what shall be their jurisdiction and 
mode of procedure. Should Congress fail to create such 
tribunals, then, under the Constitution, they must be con- 
stituted according to the laws and usages of civilized 
warfare, and they may take cognizance of such offenses 
as the laws of war permit. 

"That the law of nations constitute a part of the laws 
of the land is established from the face of the Constitu- 
tion upon principle and by authority." (See also Opin- 
ions of Attorney General, vol. i., page 27 ; 5th Wheaton, 
153.) 

He there proceeds to show that an army has to deal 



176 ANDERSONVILLE. 

with two classes of enemies, one of which is the open, 
active belhgerent or soldier in nniform, who observes the 
laws of war ; the other is a violator of the laws of war 
and usages of civilized nations, who, when caught, may 
be shot down as an enemy to the human race, or tried 
by military courts, and subjected to such punishment as 
the laws of war authorize. Here, as before, we see that 
the only safe rule is to place in the hands of the com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, or his subordinates acting 
under proper orders, full and exclusive discretion as to 
the means to be used to protect the existence of his army, 
subject only to be held responsible for the abuse of the 
discretion so conferred. 

And whether he resort to a Military Commission, 
court-martial, drum -head court, summary and instanta- 
neous execution, right reason and wise public policy must 
sustain him so long as he keeps within the code of civ- 
ilized nations. I do not think it necessary to notice the 
distinction made between martial law and military law, 
your guide being, as I conceive it, the law of nations 
rather than either. 

I might remark, however, that military laio is a part 
of the law of the land in times of peace and war; but 
martial laio is an incident of war, and may or may not 
be declared. I do not rest your right, however, to sit 
as a Military Commission upon the action of the Presi- 
dent in this particular. He may not have declared mar- 
tial law to be in force, still your existence be legal. He 
may not have suspended the writ of habeas corpus, still 
your jurisdiction be undisturbed. To declare martial 
law is one act of war power, to suspend the writ of 



ANDERSONVILLE. 177 

habeas corpus another, to order this court to try the pris- 
oner before it another. 

It is an error to suppose there must be an enemy men- 
acing you pendente lite, a declaration of war, a suspen- 
sion of trial by civil tribunal, before you can^ proceed. 
The civil courts may be in never so complete operation, 
the enemy in a remote part of the country, and the place 
of trial in the midst of a peaceful portion of the land ; 
still, if there be a necessity, and the offense be properly 
punishable by the laws of war, the duty at ance falls 
upon the proper officer to meet that necessity as the pub- 
lic safety may require. I believe this view to be sus- 
tained by the best military writers, and a legitimate se- 
quence of the argument in support of Military Commis- 
sions. 

The practice of European powers confirms this opinion, 
the right having never been seriously questioned, but its 
abuse being provided for by bills of indemnity. If far- 
ther precedent be required, it is amply presented in the 
action of President Washington during the " Whisky In- 
surrection" of 1794 and 1795, of President Jefferson dur- 
ing the "Burr Conspiracy" of 1806, of General Jackson 
in 1814 at New Orleans, and afterward in Florida ; in all 
of which cases, though of infinitely less moment com- 
pared with the exigencies growing out of the present 
war, it was enunciated that whatever the existing neces- 
sity demands must be done. (See Halleck, Internation- 
al Law, page 371, 880, and cases cited.) 

Second. Having presented sufficient reason for con- 
cluding that the President has usurped no authority and 
violated no law in constituting you a military court for 

112 



178 ANDERSONVILLE. 

the trial of military offenses, it remains to notice whether 
the present case comes within the scope of your jurisdic- 
tion. Here, I think, we will have less dif&culty, as it is 
more a question of fact than law. 

This prisoner is charged with the perpetration of of- 
fenses, many of them unknown to common law or statute 
law ; they were committed by a belligerent in his own 
territory, in the exercise of a commission assigned him 
by the enemy, and given in violation of the laws of war, 
the execution of the orders of his superiors. The gov- 
ernment he served never did or can try him ; no civil 
tribunal is possessed of power ; the duty, then, as I think, 
devolves upon you. But it is said the war is over ; there 
is no longer any necessity of military tribunals ; and how- 
ever proper in times of war and public danger to assume 
the functions of civil courts, there is now no reason for 
doing so. 

If it were necessary, I would traverse the fact. The war 
is not over. True, the muskets of treason are stacked, 
the armies of the rebellion are dissolved, some of the 
leaders are in exile, others are in prison, but by far the 
largest portion, sullen, silent, vengeful, stand ready to seize 
every opportunity to divide the loyal sentiment of the 
country, and, with spirit unbroken and defiant, would 
this day raise the standard of rebellion if they dared 
hope for success. This opinion of the war still existing 
is not mine alone. The attorney general, in his return 
to Judge Wylie's writ of liaheas corpus issued for the sur- 
render of the body of Mrs. Surrat, spoke of it in that 
sense. 

Congress, in many of its enactments, provided for a 



ANDERSONVILLE. 179 

state of war after a cessation of hostilities. The whole 
policy of the government toward the Southern States 
sustains this idea. 

The President, by suspending Judge Wylie's writ in 
the Burch case on the 16th of September, since this trial 
began, adherence to President Lincoln's proclamation of 
martial law, and his declining to take any action that 
might be construed into a proclamation of peace, all show 
beyond doubt that the time of public danger has not 
passed. 

But, however this may be, with the fact you have noth- 
ing to do. The President, by constituting you a court to 
try this prisoner, has by that act alone declared the pres- 
ence of a public danger, and that a necessity exists to 
still cling to military tribunals for the punishment of 
military offenses, and it is beyond your power to dispute 
his judgment. You may, perhaps, pass upon the ques- 
tion as to whether you are a court, but as to the emerg- 
ency requiring you to try and punish this prisoner, if 
guilty, the President is the sole judge. The Supreme 
Court has so decided, as we have before seen. 

I hope then, gentlemen, you may find it not against 
your consciences or judgment to proceed to a final ver- 
dict in this case, and that you may illustrate the wisdom 
expressed in the judicial opinion of one of our most emi- 
nent jurists, given in 4 Wheaton, 816 : " The government 
of the Union is a government of the people ; it emanates 
from them, its powers are granted by them, and are to be 
exercised for their benefit ; and the government which 
has a right to do and act, and has imposed upon it the 
duty of performing the act, must, according to the dictates 
of renson, be allowed to select the means." 



180 ANDERSONVILLE. 

Having thus disposed of the question of jurisdiction, I 
ask indulgence a moment to notice some of the objec- 
tions which have been made by the counsel for this pris- 
oner during the progress of the trial. 

I am not prepared to believe that this court would 
stultify itself by declaring that their action, after argu- 
ment pro and con as to admissibility of evidence, over- 
ruling of motions or pleas, or sustaining the same, was 
wrong, and that they now desire to correct it ; however, 
as the conduct of the case has been somewhat criticised, 
and as the counsel who declined to argue the defense in- 
timated that a large part of his address would have been 
directed to those objections, and has asked that they be 
not wholly overlooked, I think it not entirely out of 
place to review at this time very briefly the points of 
objection. It has been frequently asserted in court by 
counsel that the whole power of the government was 
concentrated upon the prosecution of this prisoner, and 
that he, single-handed and without the aid of the govern- 
ment, has been conducting his defense. It is well known 
that witnesses for the defense receive a per diem and 
their actual expenses in coming to the court and return- 
ing to their homes. The record of this court will show 
that every subpoena asked for has been given except in 
the cases of a few rebel functionaries, who, for reasons 
stated at the time, were not subpoenaed. Of this, how- 
ever, there should be no complaint, as the facts which 
those witnesses were expected to establish were shown 
by other witnesses, and as a proposition was made by 
the judge advocate to admit that those witnesses thus 
excluded would testify here to the same facts — a propo- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 181 

sition which was declined by the counsel. The records 
of this court will also show that there have been one 
hundred and six witnesses subpoenaed for the defense, of 
whom sixty-eight reported. Of these, thirty-nine, many 
of them soldiers of our army and sufferers at Anderson- 
ville, were discharged without being put upon the stand, 
the counsel, for reasons only known to himself, declining 
to call them. Besides this, the government has, without 
a precedent, furnished, at great expense, to the prisoner a 
copy of the record from day to day during the progress 
of the trial. The government has also given his coun- 
sel the benefit of its clerical force, and, in short, shown 
the prisoner indulgences which should forever close the 
mouth of one whose treatment of its soldiers was in such 
striking contrast that he must have felt the more deeply 
his guilt. 

Again, it has been frequently complained of during 
the trial that the Court has excluded the declarations of 
the prisoner made in his own behalf, and has refused to 
allow him, in other instances, to show what he did. I 
think the Court will remember that in every case the 
whole of any particular transaction has been given for 
and against the prisoner, and that the res gestce^ properly 
so called, has never been excluded. All the prison rec- 
ords in the possession of the government which could 
throw any light upon the case are in evidence. 

The prisoner has been allowed to show acts of kind- 
ness wherever they could with any legal propriety be 
given, as, for instance, the taking of drummer-boys out 
of the stockade because of their youth ; the allowing 
Miss Eawson to administer to the wants of one soldier ; 



182 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

the giving of passes to ministers of tlae Gospel to enter 
the stockade; his letters and reports with reference to 
the wants of the prison ; his kindness to the prisoners 
whom he detailed for duty outside the stockade, and 
many other things, all of which we shall show hereafter, 
are not incompatible with the idea of his guilt. But, 
even admitting more than is claimed or proved for the 
prisoner in regard to his urging Winder and the rebel 
authorities to do certain things, the law is clear that if a 
party remain in a conspiracy, though protesting against 
it, and seeking to escape from it, or if he continue in an 
unlawful enterprise, insisting that he does not mean to 
do harm, yet, if harm results, or serious and criminal con- 
sequences follow, he is nevertheless responsible. If, in 
the course of one year's pursuit of an illegal business, a 
stupendous crime indeed, the perpetrators could show 
less than this prisoner has shown in his favor, he would 
not be entitled to the human name. 

It would be strange, indeed, if this record of five thou- 
sand pages, of thirty-eight days of weary, laborious trial, 
presented no wrong rulings, no improper exclusion or 
admission of evidence in a greater or less degree perti- 
nent to some issue made; but I assert with all confi- 
dence, and with honest belief, that the interests of this 
prisoner have not been and can not be affected injurious- 
ly by such action in any instance that can be named. 

It must not be forgotten, and to this I call the special 
attention of the counsel and of the Court, that nowhere 
in this record can there be found the exclusion of a scin- 
tilla of evidence bearing on the defense to the charge of 
murder, and to which this prisoner is more especially 



ANDERSONVILLE. 183 

called to answer. There is another fact to which I would 
also call the attention of the counsel and the Court, and 
it is this : that if, after a careful examination of the evi- 
dence, there be sufficient legal proof legally spread upon 
the record, you must proceed with your finding without 
regard to any illegal evidence, and not, as the counsel 
would insist, declare the whole record vitiated. This is 
sustained by reason and by law, wherever it comes up to 
the true standard, which, after all, is but the perfection of 
human reason. The only instances in which appellate 
courts remand cases for new trial is where, from the bill 
of exceptions presented, they can not determine whether 
the jury were or were not misled by the evidence im- 
properly admitted ; but where they find that the errors 
complained of were not material, or where the verdict is 
sustained after disregarding the errors, no court will sub- 
ject the parties to a second trial, or interpose to save the 
complainant. 

Out of place as this may be in the order of my argu- 
ment, I have deemed it just to say thus much. 



184 ANDERSONVILLE. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

Sufferings at Andersonville. 

2d. We come now to notice the evidence spread upon 
the record with regard to the sufferings of Union prison- 
ers at Andersonville. 

Character of Testimony. 

It is argued that the evidence presenting the horrors 
of Andersonville is not of that class which is entirely re- 
liable ; that those who were in the rebellion have been 
brought here forcibly by the government, and made to 
testify in anticipation of reward by pardon, or through 
fear of being themselves punished ; and that the evidence 
of soldiers who were sufferers at Andersonville was high- 
ly colored, testifying as they did under a sense of the in- 
juries inflicted upon them while prisoners, and warmed 
to enthusiasm in the enumeration of their wrongs. 

I need only say in reply that the careful observer of 
this trial must have discovered how utterly powerless 
has been the language of witnesses to describe the real 
condition of affairs at Andersonville ; that where science 
has spoken through her devotees, where inspectors have 
tried to convey a correct idea, where the artist has sought 
to delineate, or the photographer to call the elements to 
witness, they have all uniformly declared that, with all 
these appliances, nothing has presented in their true light 



ANDEESONVILLE. 185 

tlie horrors of that place. The evidence before you is 
of the highest character. It consists of many kinds, from 
many directions : from persons speaking in the interest 
and for the good of the rebel government ; from persons 
under a strong sense of the wrongs done these miserable 
wretches ; from disinterested observers neither in the one 
nor In the other army ; and from the injured themselves. 
And yet there is a most striking concurrence in all this 
testimony, all agreeing that history has never presented 
a scene of such gigantic human suffering. If I can suc- 
ceed in presenting to your mind a faithful picture of An- 
dersonville as it was, or make such an analysis and group- 
ing of the testimony as to show to the civilized world, in 
a tithe of its horrors, the suffering endured, I shall have 
accomplished all I can hope, and shall have done more 
than I fear I am able to do. 

The Stockade. 

The stockade at Andersonville was originally built, as 
we learn from many sources, with a capacity for ten thou- 
sand, its area being about eighteen acres. It continued 
without enlargement until the month of June, 1864, when 
it was increased about one third, its area then, as shown 
by actual survey, being twenty-three and a half acres. 
The prison, as described by Dr. Joseph Jones, a surgeon 
of the rebel army, in his official report to the surgeon 
general, consisted of a strong stockade in the form of a 
parallelogram, twenty feet in height, formed of strong 
pine logs firmly planted in the ground, with two smaller 
surrounding stockades, one sixteen and the other twelve 
feet high, these latter being, as he says, " intended for 



186 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



offense and defense. If the inner stockade should at any 
time be forced by the prisoners, the second forms an- 
other line of defense ; while, in case of an attempt to de- 
liver the prisoners by a force operating upon the exte- 
rior, the outer line forms an admirable protection to the 
Confederate troops, and a most formidable obstacle to 
cavalry or infantry" (Record, page 4328). To show more 
clearly the strength of this stockade, I quote again from 
Dr. Jones's Eeport: "The four angles of the outer line 
are strengthened by earth-works upon commanding em- 
inences, from which the cannon, in case of an outbreak 
among the prisoners, may sweep the entire inclosure" 
(Record, pages 4328 and 4329). 

On the outside of the inner stockade were erected 
thirty-five sentry-boxes or watch-houses overlooking the 
area within, which were so constructed as to protect the 
sentries from the sun and rain. From Colonel Chand- 
ler's Inspection Report, dated August 5th, 1864, 1 quote 
the following : 

"A railing around the inside of the stockade, and about 
twenty feet from it, constitutes the 'dead line,' beyond 
which prisoners are not allowed to pass. A small stream 
passes from west to east through the inclosure, about one 
hundred and fifty yards from its southern limit, and fur- 
nishes the only water for washing accessible to the pris- 
oners. Bordering this stream, about three quarters of an 
acre in the centre of the inclosure are so marshy as to be 
at present unfit for occupation, reducing the available 
present area to about twenty-three and a half acres, which 
gives somewhat less than six square feet to each pris- 
oner ;" and, he remarks, " even this is being constantly 
reduced by the additioii^J to their number." 



ANDEESONVILLE. 187 

From the beginning to the close, the onlj shelter in the 
prison was such as the ingenuity of the prisoners could 
devise, all the standing timber and undergrowth having 
been cut away ; and, with the exception of a small shed, 
covered but not inclosed, stretching across a portion of 
the north end of the stockade, nothing whatever existed 
to protect the prisoners from the inclemency of the weath- 
er or the intolerable heat of that climate. 

The prison was entered by two gates, called the north 
and south gates ; the first situated a short distance north 
of the bakery, the other a short distance from the south- 
west corner, and on the west side. 

The Cook-house. 

Immediately above the stockade, and on the stream 

^nrough it, was situated an immense cook-house, 

^ich all the rations provided for the prisoners, if 

^oked at all, were prepared. The drainage and offal of 

this bakery passed immediately into the stream running 

through the prison. Still above, and on the same stream, 

were located, at distances varying from five hundred 

yards to half a mile, several rebel encampments. These 

washed into the stream, and their sinks were located 

on it. 

The Hospital. 

The hospital, which was erected some time in June, 
1864, prior to which time the sick were treated under 
the shed already referred to inside the stockade, was a 
stockade inclosure similar to the prison, situated on the 
south side of the prison, about four hundred yards from 



188 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

the southeast corner, and containing five and a half acres. 
A stream of water passing through its southeast corner 
emptied itself into the stream crossing the stockade a few- 
yards from the east side of the stockade. Within this 
in,closure were erected for hospital buildings long sheds 
constructed of poles, with roofs made of pine boughs, and 
in some instances of planks, without any siding or other 
protection. In some cases wall and fly tents, much worn 
and in very bad condition, were used. This constituted 
the shelter furnished the sick. 

The Dead-house. 

The dead-house was a building similar to one of the 
hospital sheds, except that it was partially inclosed by 
boards and puncheons nailed on its sides. To this place 
the dead were conveyed upon litters, blankets, stretchers, 
and by such other means as the prisoners could devise, 
and were conveyed thence in army wagons, about twenty- 
five in each load, piled up "like cord-wood," or "as a 
Western farmer hauls his rails," as one of the witnesses 
told you, to the burying-ground, which was situated a 
few hundred yards northwest of the stockade. 

Condition of the Stockade. 

Having thus given an outline of the stockade, the hos- 
pital, and their surroundings, let us inquire into the con- 
dition of each of these places, taking first the stockade. 
It will be remembered that the testimony is drawn from 
many sources. I present, 

1st. The opinions of medical officers in the service of 
the rebel government on duty at Andersonville and else- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 189 

where at the time these sufferings are alleged to have 
been endured. 

2d. The opinions of rebel officers assigned to the spe- 
cial duty of investigating the condition of affairs at An- 
dersonville, together with the records of the prison. 

3d. The opinions and observations of officers and sol- 
diers of the rebel army on duty at Andersonville. 

4th. The observations of persons residing in the vicin- 
ity during this period, and who paid frequent visits to 
Andersonville; and, 

5th. The testimony of the prisoners themselves. 

I shall endeavor to present the subject in the order 
above mentioned. 

Testimony of Medical Officers. 

Among the earlier official inspections given to this 
prison was that of Surgeon E. J. Eldridge, who made a 
report pursuant to instructions of Major General Howell 
Cobb, and which accompanied the report of that general 
made upon the same subject to the adjutant general of 
the rebel government for the information of the War 
Department, and which reached that department May 
21st, 1864. (See Exhibit 15, A.) He says: ''I found the 
prisoners, in my opinion, too much crowded for the pro- 
motion or for the continuance oftheir health, particularly 
during the approaching summer months. The construc- 
tion of properly-arranged barracks would, of course, al- 
low the same number of men to occupy the inclosure 
with material advantage to their comfort and health. At' 
present their shelter consists of such as they can make of 
the boughs of trees and poles covered with dirt. The 



190 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

few tents tbey have are occupied as a hospital I 

found the condition of a large number of the Belle Island 
prisoners on their arrival to be such as to require more 
attention to their diet and cleanliness than the actual ad- 
ministration of medicine, very many of them suffering 
from chronic diarrhoea, combined with scorbutic disposi- 
tion, with extreme emaciation as the consequence. The 
hospital being within the inclosure, it has been found im- 
practicable to administer such diet and give them such 
attention as they require, as, unless constantly watched, 
such diet as is prepared for them is stolen and eaten by 
the other prisoners." 

He then proceeds to urge upon the authorities in Eich- 
mond the necessity of removing the hospital. On this 
point he says, ''I consider the establishment of a hospi- 
tal outside of the present inclosure as essential to the 
proper treatment of the sick, and most "urgently recom- 
mend its immediate construction." And to meet an ob- 
jection which he says was ma^e at Eichmond to do this, 
because additional guards would be required, he says, 
"Nurses could be detailed with such discretion that but 
few would attempt to escape, and, with frequent roll- 
calls, they would not be absent but a few hours before 
detected, and would be readily caught by the dogs, al- 
ways at hand for that purpose." 

Up to this time no baking for the prisoners existed, 
their rations being issued to them raw, as will appear 
from the following paragraph in the report : " The bak- 
ery just being completed will be a means of furnishing 
better prepared food, particularly bread, the half-cooked 
condition of which has doubtless contributed to the con- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 191 

tinuance of the bowel affections." The mean strength 
of prisoners at the date of this report, as shown by the 
journal kept by the prisoner, was about fourteen thou- 
sand. 

Thus we see that the sufferings at Andersonville were 
anticipated as early as May, and the rebel government 
duly warned. Of that question, however, hereafter. 

Without pretending to analyze the evidence of each 
particular medical gentleman who has testified upon this 
subject, as they all concur in the general facts in relation 
to the condition of the stockade, I select the report of 
one of the most intelligent of their number, quoting him 
somewhat fully. The gentleman who speaks through 
the report I am about to give is Dr. Joseph Jones, Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Georgia, a 
graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and a man 
of eminence in his profession. He went to Anderson- 
ville under the direction of the surgeon general of the 
Confederacy, pursuant to an order dated Eichmond, Vir- 
ginia, August 6th, 1864, in which the surgeon general 
uses the following language : 

" The field of pathological investigation afforded by 
the large collection of Federal prisoners in Georgia is of 
great extent and importance, and it is believed that re- 
sults of value to the profession may be obtained by a 
careful investigation of the effects of disease upon the 
large body of men subjected to a decided change of cli- 
mate and the circumstances peculiar to prison life" (Rec- 
ord, pp. 4324 and 4325). From this it will be seen there 
was authority from a high source for his proceedings, 
certifying a knowledge of the condition of things at An- 



192 ANDERSONVILLE. 

dersonville, in the surgeon general's office, if it does not 
especially commend the humanity of that office. 

After making some remarks in regard to the char- 
acter of the soil, the internal structure of the hills, and 
so forth, Dr. Jones proceeds to give a table illustrating 
the mean strength of prisoners confined in the stockade 
from its organization, February 24, 1864, to September, 
1864. 

This computation, I may remark, is only approximate- 
ly accurate, and is arrived at by adding together the 
number of prisoners at the first, middle, and the last of 
each month, and dividing the result by three. His table, 
however, shows the following as the mean result : 



March 7,500 

April 10,000 

May 15,000 



June 22,291 

July 29,030 

August 32,899 



He says: " Within the circumscribed area of the stock- 
ade the Federal prisoners were compelled to perform all 
the offices of life, cooking, washing, urinating, defecation, 
exercise, and sleeping. ...... The Federal prisoners 

were gathered from all parts of the Confederate States 
east of the Mississippi, and crowded in the confined space, 
until, in the month of June, the average number of 
square feet of ground to each prisoner was only 83.2, or 
less than four square yards" (Record, p. 4331). 

"These figures," he says, "represent the condition of 
the stockade in a better light even than it really was, for 
a considerable breadth of land along the stream flowing 
from west to east, between the hills, was low and boggy, 
and was covered with the excrement of the men, and 
thus rendered wholly uninhabitable, and, in fact, useless 



ANDERSONVILLE. 193 

for every purpose except that of defecation" (Record, 
pp. 4331 and 4332). 

It will be remembered tbat besides this swamp must 
be excluded the space between the dead line and the 
stockade, which, together with the bog, must be taken 
from the whole area. Colonel Chandler, in his official 
report, makes a computation showing that the actual 
space allowed to each prisoner was only six square feet, 
there being scarcely room for the prisoners all to lie 
down at the same time. Dr. Jones's report continues : 

'' With their characteristic industry and ingenuity, the 
Federals constructed for themselves small huts and caves, 
and attempted to shield themselves from the rain, and 
sun, and night-damps, and dew. But few tents were dis- 
tributed to the prisoners, and those were in most cases 
torn and rotten. In the location and arrangement of 
these tents and huts no order appears to have been fol- 
lowed ; in fact, regular streets appeared to be out of the 
question in so crowded an area, especially, too, as large 
bodies of prisoners were from time to time added sud- 
denly, without any previous preparation The po- 
lice and internal economy of the prison was left almost 
entirely in the hands of the prisoners themselves, the du- 
ties of the Confederate soldiers acting as guards being 
limited to the occupation of the boxes or look-outs ar- 
ranged around the stockade at regular intervals, and to 
the manning of the batteries at the angles of the prison" 
(Record, pp. 4333 and 4334). 

Again: "Even judicial matters pertaining to them- 
selves, as the detection and punishment of such crimes 
as theft and murder, appear to have been in a great 

I 



194 ANDERSONVILLE. 

measure abandoned to the prisoners. A striking in- 
stance of this occurred in the month of July, when the 
Federal prisoners within the stockade tried, condemned, 
and hanged six of their own number who had been con- 
victed of cheating, and of robbing and murdering their 
fellow -prisoners. They were all hung upon the same 
day, and thousands of prisoners gathered around to wit- 
ness the execution. The Confederate authorities are said 
not to have interfered with these proceedings. In this 
collection of men from all parts of the world, every 
phase of human character was represented. The stron- 
ger preyed upon the weaker, and even the sick, who were 
unable to defend themselves, were robbed of their scanty 
supplies of food and clothing. Dark stories were afloat 
of men, both sick and well, who were murdered at night, 
strangled to death by their comrades for scant supplies 
of money and clothing. I heard a sick and wounded 
Federal prisoner accuse his nurse — a fellow-prisoner of 
the United States Army — of having stealthily, during 
his sleep, inoculated his wounded arm with gangrene, 
that he might destroy his life, and fall heir to his cloth- 
ing 

"The large number of men confined within the stock- 
ade soon, under a defective system of police and with 
imperfect arrangements, covered the surface of the low 
grounds with excrement. The sinks over the lower 
portions of the stream were imperfect in their plan and 
structure, and the excrement was in large measure de- 
posited so near the borders of the stream as not to be 
washed away, or else accumulated upon the low boggy 
ground. The volume of water was not sufficient to wash 



ANDERSONVILLE. 195 

away tlie feces, and they accumulated in sucli quanti- 
ties in the lower portion of the stream as to form a mass 
of liquid excrement. 

" Heavy rains caused the waters of the stream to rise, 
and, as the arrangements for the passage of the increased 
amounts of water out of the stockade were insuflicient, 
the liquid faeces overflowed the low grounds, and covered 
them several inches after the subsidence of the waters. 

" The action of the sun upon this putrefying mass of 
excrement, and fragments of bread, and meat, and bones, 
excited most rapid fermentation, and developed a horri- 
ble stench. Improvements were projected for the re- 
moval of the filth and for the prevention of its accumu- 
lation, but they were only partially and imperfectly car- 
ried out. 

"As the forces of the prisoners were reduced by con- 
finement, want of exercise, improper diet, and by scurvy, 
diarrhoea, and dysentery, they were unable to evacuate 
their bowels within the stream or along its banks, and 
the excrement was deposited at the very doors of their 
tents. 

*' The vast majority appeared to lose all repulsion to 
filth, and both sick and well disregarded all the laws of 
hygiene and personal cleanliness. 

" The accommodations of the sick were imperfect 
and insufficient" (Record, pages 4333, 4334, 4335, 4336). 
Again he says : " Each day the dead from the stockade 
were carried out by their fellow-prisoners, and deposited 
upon the ground under a bush arbor, just outside of the 
southwestern gate. From thence they were carried in 
carts to the burying-ground, one quarter of a milo north- 



196 ANDERSONVILLE. 

west of the prison. The dead were buried without cof- 
fins, side by side, in trenches four feet deep. 

^' The low grounds bordering the stream were covered 
with human excrement and filth of all kinds, which in 
many cases appeared to be alive with working maggots. 

"An indescribable sickening stench arose from the 
fermenting mass of human dung and filth" (Record, p. 
4339). 

And again: "There were nearly five thousand seri- 
ously-ill Federals in the stockade and Confederate States 
Military Prison Hospital, and the deaths exceeded one 
hundred per day ; and large numbers of the prisoners, 
who were walking about, and who had not been entered 
upon the sick report, were suffering from severe and 
incurable diarrhoea, dysentery, and scurvy. .... I vis- 
ited two thousand sick within the stockade, lying under 
some long sheds which they had built at the northern 
portion for themselves. At this time only one medical 
officer was in attendance, whereas at least twenty medi- 
cal officers should have been employed" (Record, pp. 
4340 and 4341). 

By comparing two very interesting tables of statistics 
given in this connection by Dr. Jones, it will be observed 
that, although the number of sick in the stockade was 
the same as that in the hospital, while the number of sur- 
geons in attendance in the stockade was greatly below 
that in the hospital, the deaths occurring were about the 
same in each ; or, in other words, the prisoners died as 
rapidly with treatment as without it. This is confirmed 
by the opinions of several surgeons, among them Dr. 
Roy, Flewellen, Head, Rice, and others, who have stated 



ANDERSONVILLE. 197 

that medicines were of little use, and that more could 
have been done by dieting. 

Again Dr. Jones says: " Scurvy, diarrhoea, dysentery, 
and hospital gangrene were the prevailing diseases. I 
was surprised to find but few cases of malarial fever, and 
no well-marked cases of typhus or typhoid fever. The 
absence of the different forms of malarial fever may be 
accounted for in the supposition that the artificial atmos- 
phere of the stockade, crowded densely with human be- 
ings and loaded with animal exhalations, was unfavora- 
ble to the existence and action of the malarial poison. 
The absence of typhoid and typhus fevers among all the 
causes which are supposed to generate these diseases ap- 
peared to be due to the fact that the great majority of 
these prisoners had been in captivity in Virginia, at Belle 
Island, and in other parts of the Confederacy, for months, 
and even as long as two years, and during this time they 
had been subjected to the same bad influences, and those 
who had not had these fevers before either had them 
during their confinement in Confederate prisons, or else 
their systems, from long exposure, were proof against 
their action" (Eecord, p. 4843). 

A most striking fact is here presented, which illus- 
trates, perhaps, in as strong a light as is possible, the ter- 
rible condition of our prisoners. The report shows that, 
in a region of country favorable to malarial fevers, per- 
sons lying in the open air, on the border of a swamp, 
without shelter, drinking unwholesome water — in short, 
with every surrounding conducive to malaria, still the 
poison of that atmosphere, made so by peculiar circum- 
stances, overcame all those influences, and rendered the 



198 ANDERSONVILLE. 

place comparatively free from fevers of a malarial na- 
ture. 

After describing at some length the effects of scurvy 
and hospital gangrene, the report proceeds: "The long 
use of salt meat, oftentimes imperfectly cured, as well as 
the almost total deprivation of vegetables and fruit, ap- 
peared to be the chief causes of the scurvy. 

"I carefully examined the bakery and the bread fur- 
nished the prisoners, and found that they were supplied 
almost entirely with corn -bread from which the husk 
had not been separated. This husk acted as an irritant 
to the alimentary canal, without adding any nutriment 
to the bread" (Record, p. 4346). 

After speaking of the sheds used for the sick in the 
stockade, which were open on all sides, he says: "The 
sick lay upon the bare boards, or npon such ragged 
blankets as they possessed, without, as far as I observed, 
any bedding or even straw. Pits for the reception of 
fseces were dug within a few feet of the lower floor, and 
they were almost never unoccupied by those suffering 
with diarrhoea. The haggard, distressed countenances of 
these miserable, complaining, dejected living skeletons, 
crying for medical aid and food, .... and the ghastly 
corpses, with their glazed eyeballs staring up into va- 
cant space, with the flies swarming down their open and 
grinning mouths and over their ragged clothes, infested 
with numerous lice, as they lay among the sick and dy- 
ing, formed a picture of helpless, hopeless misery which 
it would be impossible to portray by words or by the 
brush" (Record, p. 4848). 

It would hardly seem necessary, if indeed it were pos- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 199 

sible, to add coloring to the picture here drawn. I can 
not refrain, however, from noticing farther the condition 
of these prisoners, as we learn it from the same class of 
testimony. Dr. Amos Thornburg, a rebel surgeon on 
duty at Andersonville from the 14th of April until the 
prison was finally broken up, fully confirms every thing 
said by Dr. Jones. After speaking of the terrible mor- 
tality among the prisoners, and in reply to the question, 
''To what do you attribute it?" he says, "I attribute it 
to the want of proper diet ; the crowding together of too 
many men in the prison and in the hospital; the lack of 
shelter and fuel, and consequent exposure. While I pre- 
scribed at the stockade, after the hospital was moved out- 
side, the number of sick who could not be admitted into 
the hospital became so great that we were compelled to 
practice by formulas for different diseases, numbering so 
that, instead of a prescription, a patient was told to use 
No.— "(Eecord,p.2321). 

Manifestly improper as this method of treating diseases 
must appear to every one, it did not escape the criticism 
of the more conscientious even of those at Andersonville. 
Dr. Head, persisting in giving a prescription in each case, 
as he thought his duty as a conscientious physician re- 
quired, and not willing to accept a number prepared for 
all stages of any one disease, was told, on asking why he 
could not be permitted to pursue the safe course, " That 
he was not to practice in that way ; that he had to prac- 
tice according to the formulas and numbers that they 
had" (Record, p. 2500). 

In reply to the question, "Why did you object to it?" 
lie says, "Because I could not prescribe properly for my 



200 ANDERSONVILLE. 

patients, I looked upon it as utter quackery ; any body, 
whether he had ever read medicine or not, could prac- 
tice according to the formulas. It was often doubtful 
whether a prescription would suit a case in its present 
condition. The doctors, however, had to take that or 
nothing." 

Dr. G. L. B. Eice, another surgeon on duty there, speak- 
ing on the same point, says: "I commenced prescribing 
as I had been in the habit of doing at home, but was in- 
formed that I would not be allowed to do that. I was 
handed a lot of formulas and numbers from one up to a 
certain point, and we had to use those. My opinion was 
that we could do very little good with that kind of pre- 
scription. It was very unsafe practice. I knew noth- 
ing about the ingredients in them, and had no means of 
knowing it ; I made complaints, but the chief surgeon 
would not allow a change" (Eecord, p. 3604). 

The testimony of Dr. Thornburg, and other surgeons 
who prescribed at the stockade, shows that after the hos- 
pital was moved outside, patients were not treated in the 
stockade at all, but only those who were able to crowd 
their way through, that living mass to the south gate, or 
could induce their companions to carry them there, or, 
as happened in rare instances, could have medicines sent 
in to them, received any medical attendance whatever. 
Hundreds and thousands, as appears from the concur- 
rent testimony of all the witnesses, sickened, languished, 
and died in that terrible place, without any medical at- 
tendance whatever. Horrible as this may appear, the 
hospital register bears indubitable proof of its truth. 

Let me, in this connection, refer to an exhibit show- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 201 

ing certain computation made from that register. The 
phrase " died in quarters" in the column of remarks, Dr. 
Thornburg says, describes those cases just alluded to, 
and they are shown to have amounted to the frightful 
number of 3727. 

These dead, as we learn from Dr. Thornburg's testi- 
mony, after being brought out, were examined, and, as 
far as possible, the diseases from which they died were 
entered on the hospital register for a purpose so diaboli- 
cal that one shudders at the thought, and which I shall 
hereafter notice. Others, the causes of whose deaths 
could not even be guessed at, or, as Dr. Jones describes 
it, morhi varii^ were marked on the register " unknown." 
Prisoners would often die on their way to the sick-gate, 
or while waiting their turns at the gate, or on the way 
from the gate to the hospital ; and although in some cases 
such men might have been prescribed for, they could 
not afterward be identified, but had to be carried to the 
grave-yard and buried among the nameless. To prevent, 
if possible, this utter annihilation of memory, name, and 
fame, Dr. Thornburg instituted a system of placards, by 
which he sought to prevent, if possible, this reckless wip- 
ing out of all traces of the dead, and which prevented its 
occurrence, he thinks, after June, 1864 ; but there had al- 
ready gone to their last home, as Captain Moore, who re- 
interred the dead at Andersonville, tells us, four hundred 
and fifty-one of our brave soldiers. Who they are the 
Andersonville register tells not, but there is a register 
where they are all recorded in letters of light, and one 
by one will these unknown rise in judgment against 
those who are responsible for their deaths. 

12 



202 ANDEKSONYILLE. 

Another friglitful feature brought out by the testimo- 
ny of Dr. Thornburg and others, and confirmed by near- 
ly every soldier who testified before this court, is this, 
that only the worst cases were allowed to enter the hos- 
pital ; and so closely was the line drawn discriminating 
against these supplicants, that often prisoners who had 
been refused admission into the hospital died on their 
way back to their quarters. I will not stop now, as 1 
am not inquiring into the responsibility of parties, to no- 
tice the ineffable cruelty of compelling the sick to remain 
in the stockade until they were in a dying condition, as 
some of the witnesses say, before they were eligible to a 
space as large as their own persons in what was falsely 
termed a hospital. 

Nor did the rigors and sufferings of this prison cease 
till its very close. Their shelter continued the same — 
no more ; while the treatment in and out of the stockade 
was not perceptibly better. From a temperature rang- 
ing during the summer up to near 150° Fahrenheit in 
the sun, as Dr. Thornburg tells you, during which there 
were many cases of sun-stroke, it fell in the winter to a 
temperature much below the freezing-point, nothing be- 
ing left these miserable creatures with which to resist the 
inclemency of the weather but diseased and emaciated 
bodies, and ragged, worn-out clothing. Dr. Thornburg 
says that during the winter there was weather sufficient- 
ly severe to have frozen to death men with the scanty 
supplies these prisoners had, and in their emaciated con- 
dition ; and Dr. Eice, after stating that the prisoners were 
exposed more or less during the whole winter, says, "I 
knew a great many to die there who I believed died from 



ANDERSONVILLE. 203 

hunger and starvation, and from cold and exposure" (Rec- 
ord, p. 2606). This is more than confirmed also by Dr. 
Bates (Record, p. 164). And to the eternal infamy of the 
man who registered it, and of the heartless wretches who 
caused it, let it be spread before the world that on the 
hospital register there appears this entry: "T. Gerrity, 
106th Pennsylvania, frozen to death ; admitted January 
3d ; died January 3d — died in the stockade ;" showing 
that he not only froze to death in the stockade without 
medical treatment and without shelter, but that he was 
admitted into the hospital after death for a purpose which 
I shall hereafter show. 

Wishing only to get at the truth of these things, and 
desirous particularly that the parties responsible shall be 
judged, as far as possible, out of their own mouths, I 
must trespass upon the patience of the court for a mor 
ment to notice the evidence of Dr. G. G. Eoy, a rebel sur- 
geon who was on duty from the 1st of September until 
the close of the prison. In response to the question, 
"What was the condition of the men sent to the hospi- 
tal from the stockade ? Describe their diseases and ap- 
pearance," he says, " They presented the most horrible 
spectacle of humanity that I ever saw in my life : a good 
many were suffering from scurvy and other diseases ; a 
good many were naked ; a large majority barefooted ; a 
good many without hats ; their condition generally was 
almost indescribable." And he goes on to say, " I at- 
tribute this condition to long confinement, want of the 
necessaries and comforts of life, and all those causes that 
are calculated to produce that condition of the system 
where there is just vitality enough to permit one to live. 



204: ANDERSONVILLE. 



^jSBSi 



The prisoners were too densely crowded; there was no 
shelter, except such as they constructed themselves, which 
was very insufficient ; a good many were in holes in the 
earth, with their blankets thrown over them; a good 
many had a blanket or oil-cloth drawn over poles ; some 
were in tents constructed by their own ingenuity, and 
with just such accommodations as their own ingenuity 
permitted them to contrive ; there were, you may say, no 
accommodations made for them in the stockade" (Rec- 
ord, pp. 485 and 486). 

Speaking of the east side of the stockade, along the 
stream, he says : "It is composed of marsh, and was 
blocked with trees, which had been cut down, acting as 
an obstruction to all deleterious animal and vegetable 
matter that passed after heavy weather through this 
stream ; it accumulated and became very noxious, and 
was a very fruitful source of malaria." 

He then speaks of the large quantities of insects and 
vermin which resulted from a decay of animal or vege- 
table matter, and to such an extent was this place a 
breeder of insects, that he says musquitoes — rarely heard 
of in that vicinity — so filled the air '' that it was danger- 
ous for a man to open his mouth after sundown." He 
speaks also of the multitude of fleas there, and says "the 
fleas were as bad as musquitoes, and several weeks after 
the evacuation of the stockade they emigrated, and came 
up to the private houses in the vicinity, so that the occu- 
pants had to leave on account of them." 

When we remember the facts brought out in such 
bold relief by the elaborate report of Dr. Jones as to the 
effect of slight abrasions of the skin on men under the pe- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 205 

culiar condition of body that most of these prisoners la- 
bored under, it would seem to have been almost useless 
for them to have attempted to resist the destroyer. Far- 
ther along in his testimony Dr. Koy says, " This marshy 
place I spoke of was just in the rear of the hospital, and 
the winds, of course, blew the odors from there across 
the hospital, and it was not until late in the winter, if at 
all, that any attempt was made to drain it." Still pur- 
suing our inquiries in this direction, I desire to quote 
from a report made by Dr. G. S. Hopkins and Surgeon H. 
E. Watkins, addressed to General Winder, and which was 
made pursuant to his suggestion, as embracing in a con- 
cise form many of the causes of the disease and mortality 
at Andersonville. 

Causes of Disease and Mortality. 

" 1st. The large number of prisoners crowded together. 

" 2d. The entire absence of all vegetables as diet, so 
necessary as a preventive of scurvy. 

"8d. The want of barracks to shelter the prisoners 
from sun and rain. 

"4th. The inadequate supply of wood and good water. 

" 5th. Badly-cooked food. 

*' 6th. The filthy condition of the prisoners and prison 
generally. 

"7th. The morbific emanations from the branch or 
ravine passing through the prison, the condition of which 
can not be. better explained than by naming it a morass 
of human excrement and mud." 



206 andersonville. ^^^^^h 

Preventive Measures. 

" 1st. The removal immediately from the prison of not 
less than 15,000 prisoners. 

"2d. Detail on parole a sufficient number of prisoners 
to cultivate the necessary supply of vegetables ; and, un- 
til this can be carried into practical operation, the ap- 
pointment of agents along the different lines of railroad 
to purchase and forward a supply. 

" 8d. The immediate erection of barracks to shelter the 
prisoners. 

*'4th. To furnisb the necessary quantity of wood, and 
have wells dug to supply the deficiency of water. 

"5th. Divide the prisoners into squads; place each 
squad under the charge of a sergeant ; furnish the nec- 
essary quantity of soap, and hold these sergeants respon- 
sible for the personal cleanliness of his squad ; furnish 
the prisoners with clothing at the expense of the Confed- 
erate, and, if that government be unable to do so, candid- 
ly admit our inability, and call upon the Federal govern- 
ment to furnish them. 

" 6th. By a daily inspection of bake-house and baking. 

" 7th. Cover over with sand from the hill-sides the en- 
tire morass, not less than six inches deep; board the 
stream or water-course, and confine the men to the use 
of the sinks, and make the penalty for the disobedience 
of such orders severe." 

I will not stop now to notice with what flippancy and 
recklessness the practical suggestions made by these sur- 
geons were put aside and totally disregarded both by 
General Winder and Chief Surgeon White. 



ANDERSONVILLE. 207 

I can hardly think that farther proof, inasmuch as the 
proof is already made cumulative from this class of wit- 
nesses, is needed. There have been examined, with re- 
gard to the condition of the stockade and hospital, over 
seventy witnesses, and an examination of their testimony 
will, as I before stated, show a complete and perfect con- 
currence. 



208 ANDERSONVILLE. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

Colonel Chandler's Report.— Colonel Gibbs's Testimoiiy.— Evidence of 
Rebel Officers and Soldiers. — Condition of the Hospital. 

In July there seems to have been some correspondence 
between the rebel adjutant general and General Winder, 
who was then on duty at Andersonville. From a letter 
written by Greneral Winder to Adjutant General Cooper, 
dated July 21st (see Exhibit ISTo. 17), I extract the follow- 
ing : " You speak in your indorsement of placing the 
prisoners properly. I do not comprehend what is in- 
tended by it. I know of but one way to place them, and 
that is to put them in the stockade, where they have be- 
tween four and five square yards to the man. This in- 
cludes streets, and two acres of ground about the stream." 

It will be observed that General Winder was very 
careful not to mention the strip twenty feet wide cut off 
by the " dead line." At the close of this month, from 
what motive we can only conjecture. Colonel D. T. Chand- 
ler, of the Rebel War Department, was sent to inspect 
the prison at Andersonville, and on the 5th of August, 
1864, he made a full report. This report is no stronger 
than others from which we have already quoted, but, as 
it is destined to figure extensively in this case at other 
points in the argument, I beg to make a few extracts 
from it. He says : 

" A small stream passes from west to east through the 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 209 

inclosure, furnishing the only water for washing accessi- 
ble to the prisoners. Some regiments of the guard, the 
bakery, and the cook-house, being placed on rising 
ground bordering the stream before it enters the prison, 
renders the water nearly unfit for use before it reaches 

the prisoners From thirty to fifty yards on each 

side of the stream the ground is a muddy marsh, totally 
unfit for occupation ; being constantly used as a sink since 
the prison was first established, it is now in a shocking 
condition, and can not fail to breed pestilence. No shel- 
ter whatever, nor materials for constructing any, have 
been provided by the prison authorities, and the ground 
being entirely bare of trees, none is within the reach of 
the prisoners." 

Again : " Thq. whole number of prisoners is divided 
into messes of two hundred and seventy, and subdivi- 
sions of ninety men, each under a sergeant of their own 
number ; and but one Confederate States officer, Captain 
Wirz, is assigned to the supervision and control of the 
whole. In consequence of these facts, and the absence 
of all regularity in the prison grounds, and there being 
no barracks or tents, there are and can be no regulations 
established for the police, consideration for the health, 
comfort, and sanitary condition of those within the in- 
closure, and none are practicable under existing circum- 
stances There is no medical attendance furnished 

within the stockade." 

He says farther: "Many — twenty yesterday — are cart- 
ed out daily who have died from unknown causes, and 
whom the medical officers have never seen. The dead 
are hauled out daily by wagon-loads, and buried without 



210 ANDERSONVILLE. 

coffins, their hands in many instances being first mu- 
tilated with an axe in removal of any finger-ring they 
may have. The sanitary condition of the prisoners is 
as wretched as can be, the principal causes of mortality 
being scurvy and chronic diarrhoea, the percentage of 
the former being disproportionately large among those 
brought from Belle Island. Nothing seems to have been 
done, and but little, if any effort made to arrest it by 
procuring proper food Kaw rations have been is- 
sued to a very large proportion who are entirely unpro- 
vided with proper utensils, and furnished with so limited 
a supply of fuel that they are compelled to dig with their 
hands in the filthy marsh before mentioned for roots, etc." 

Surgeon Isaiah H. White, chief surgeon at the prison, 
in a report to Colonel Chandler, which was made an in- 
closure of his report to Richmond, says : 

" The lack of barrack accommodations exposes the 
men to the heat of the sun by day and the dews by 

night, and is a prolific source of disease The 

point of exit of the stream through the wall of the stock- 
ade is not sufficiently bold as to permit the free passage 
of ordure when the stream is swollen by rains. The 
lower portion of this bottom-land is overflowed by a 
solution of excrement, which subsiding, and the surface 
exposed to the sun, produce a horrible stench." 

Evidence of Rebel Officers and Soldiers. 

I turn now to the evidence of rebel officers and sol- 
diers on duty at Andersonville. 

Colonel Alexander W. Persons, of the rebel army, the 
first commandant of the post, who remained there until 



ANDERSONVILLE. 211 

the latter part of May, says that after he was relieved he 
returned there again and drew a bill for an injunction, 
and when called upon to explain for what reason, re- 
plied, " To abate a nuisance : the grave-yard made it a 
nuisance ; the prison generally was a nuisance from the 
intolerable stench, the effluvia, the malaria that it gave 
up, and things of that sort." 

The view here presented must strike the court as 
graphic indeed, when, without the question of humanity 
or inhumanity involved, persons living in the vicinity of 
Andersonville could gravely begin a legal proceeding to 
abate the prison as a nuisance on the ground mainly that 
the effluvia arising from it was intolerable ! 

Colonel George C. Gibbs, who afterward commanded 
the post, gives evidence on this point no less important, 
lie was assigned to duty in October, 1864, and, although 
the number at that time was greatly diminished, he 
speaks of the prisoners being badly off for clothing and 
shelter, and in other respects destitute. Prior to this 
time — some time in July — he had visited the stockade, 
and he uses this language in regard to its appearance then: 

"I rode around it on three sides, I think, and could see 
into it from the batteries that commanded it. I never 
saw so many men together in the same space before ; it 
had more the appearance of an ant-hill than any thing 
else I can compare it to" (Eecord, p. 84). 

Nazareth Allen, a rebel soldier on duty at Ander- 
sonville during the summer of 1864, fully corroborates 
these opinions ; and farther, in relation to the location of 
troops above the stockade, and its effects upon the pris- 
oners, says : 



212 ANDERSONVILLE. 

" The cook-liouse was above tlie stockade, and a good 
deal of washing was done up the branch, consequently a 
great deal of filth went down. Some of the troops were 
encamped on the stream above, on the side of the hill, 
and the rain would wash the filth of the camps and sinks 
into the stream, which would carry it to the stockade. I 
have seen the prisoners using it when it was in this filthy 

condition The stench was very bad. I have 

smelt it when I was at our picket camps, about a mile in 
a straight line. It was so bad that it kept me sick pret- 
ty nearly all the time I was around the stockade. The 
soldiers preferred picket duty to sentry duty on that ac- 
count." 

William Williams, another rebel soldier on duty at 
the time, fully confirms this. He was on duty both on 
parapet and on picket, and had opportunity of observa- 
tion. In reply to a question as to the condition of the 
stockade, he says, 

^' It was as nasty as a place could be. On one occasion 
I saw a man lying there who had not clothes enough on 
him to hide his nakedness. His hip bones were worn 
away. He had put up two sticks, and fastened his coat 
over them, to keep the sun off his face. There were a 
good many lying down sick, and others waiting on them. 
The crowded state of the men and the filthiness of the 
place created a very bad odor. I have smelt it at the 
depot, about a mile from the stockade" (Record, p. 801). 

Again he says: "The stream that passed through the 
stockade ran down between the 1st and 2d Georgia regi- 
ments and Furlow's battalion, and passed the bake-house. 
All the washings from the bake-house went right through 



ANDERSONVILLE. 213 

the stockade, and also the washings from the camps. 
The pits used by the men were not five feet from the 
stream. Sometimes when it was rainy it was thick with 
mud and filth from the drainings of the camps inside the 
stockade." 

Calvin Honey cutt, another rebel soldier, on duty from 
April, 1864, to April, 1865, who was on duty on the 
stockade and also on picket, corroborates the testimony 
of his comrades. 

James Mohan, a rebel private, afterward made a lieu- 
tenant, who was on duty at Andersonville for about five 
months during the summer of 1864, gives similar testi- 
mony ; and John F. Heath, regimental commissary with 
the rank of captain, on duty from May till October, 1864, 
fully confirms the testimony upon this point already 
given. 

Evidence of Eesidents of Georgia. 

Samuel Hall, a prominent gentleman residing in Ma- 
con, Georgia, whose sympathies, he tells us, were from 
the beginning with the rebellion, and who held a high 
civil official position, says, "When first I saw it (the pris- 
on) in the month of August, it was literally crammed and 
packed ; there was scarcely room for locomotion ; it was 
destitute of shelter, as well as I could judge, and at that 
time there was a great mortality among the prisoners" 
(Record, p. 864). 

Rev. William John Hamilton also gives important tes- 
timony as to the condition of the stockade, which he vis- 
ited in the capacity of a priest. He was there in May, 
and at different periods subsequently. He says : 



214 ANDERSONVILLE. 

" I found tlie stockade extremely crowded, witli a great 
deal of sickness and suffering among the men. I was 
kept so busy administering the sacrament to the dying 
that I had to curtail a great deal of the service that Cath- 
olic priests administer to the dying ; they died so fast, I 
waited only upon those of our own Church, and do not 

include others among the dying The stockade 

was extremely filthy, the men all huddled together and 
covered with vermin. The best idea I can give the 
court of the condition of the place is perhaps this: I went 
in there with a white linen coat on, and I had not been 
in there more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour 
when a gentleman drew my attention to the condition of 
my coat : it was all covered over with vermin, and I had 
to take it off and leave it with one of the guards, and 
form my duties in my shirt-sleeves, the place was so fil- 
thy" (Record, p. 1969). 

Again, giving an illustration of the sufferings of the 
prisoners, and especially of the intense heat of the sun, 
he says, " I found a boy not more than sixteen years old, 
who came to me for spiritual comfort, without jacket or 
coat, or any covering on his feet, suffering very much 
from a wound in his right. foot. The foot was split open 
like an oyster, and on inquiring the cause I was told it 
was from exposure to the sun in the stockade, and not 
from any wound received in battle. On returning to the 
stockade a week afterward I learned that he stepped 
across the dead line and requested the guard to shoot 

him He had no medical treatment, nor had any 

others, so far as I could see, to whom I administered the 
sacrament in the stockade." 



ANDERSONVILLE. 215 

Again he says : " On my second visit, I was told there 
was an Irishman at the extreme end of the stockade who 

was calling out for a priest. I tried to cross the 

branch to reach him, but was unable to do so, as the men 
were all crowding around there trying to get into the 
water to cool themselves and wash themselves, and I had 

to leave the stockade without seeing the man 

The heat was intolerable. There was no air at all in 
the stockade. The logs of which the stockade was com- 
posed were so close together that I could not feel any 
fresh air inside, and with a strong sun beaming down 
upon it, and no shelter at all, of course the heat must 
have been insufferable ; at least I felt it so. The priests 
who went there after me, while administering the sacra- 
ment to the dying, had to use an umbrella, the heat was 
so intense" (Record, p. 1981). 

Ambrose Spencer, a gentleman of prominence in his 
state, residing near Andersonville during the war, and a 
frequent visitor to that place, gives us a graphic picture 
of the prison which I can not refrain from quoting. 

He says, " I had frequent opportunities of seeing the 
condition of the prisoners, not only from the adjacent 
hills, but on several occasions from the outside of the 
stockade, where the sentinel's grounds were." 

And in reply to a question asking him to describe the 
condition of the prisoners, he says, " I can only answer 
the question by saying that their condition was as 
wretched as could well be conceived, not only from ex- 
posure to the sun, the inclemency of the weather, and the 
cold of winter, but from the filth — from the absolute deg- 
radation which was evident in their condition. I have 



216 ANDERSONVILLE. 

seen that stockade after three or four days' rain, when 
the mud, I should think, was at least twelve inches deep. 
The prisoners were walking or wading through that mud. 

The condition of the stockade can, perhaps, be 

expressed most accurately by saying that, in passing up 
and down the railroad, if the wind was favorable, the 
odor of the stockade could be detected at least two 
miles" (Eecord, p. 2455). 

There are others of this class who testify upon this 
point, but it would seem useless to -give farther extracts. 

It is not my purpose, in this connection, to enter into a 
detail of the sufferings, the acts of cruelty inflicted, and 
the inhuman treatment they received, or to inquire by 
whom these things were done. Keserving that for its 
proper place in the argument, I shall simply refer to this 
testimony to assist us in ascertaining more certainly the 
horrors to which these brave men were subjected. 

Dr. A.W. Barrows, hospital steward of the 27th Massa- 
chusetts Eegiment, and acting assistant post surgeon at 
Plymouth, North Carolina, arrived at Andersonville on 
the 28th of May, and remained there six months. Owing 
to his knowledge of medicine and efficiency, he was pa- 
roled by the prisoner, and assigned to duty in the hos- 
pital. His testimony is important, as showing the con- 
dition of the hospital mainly ; but he has also given some 
material evidence with regard to the stockade, and from 
it I make the following extract : 

"I remember when there have been as many as sev- 
enty-five to one hundred who died during the day in the 
stockade, and who were never taken to the hospital. 
That was in the month of August." 



ANDERSONVILLE. 217 

Eobert H. Kellogg entered the prison on the 8d of 
May, 1864, and remained there until the following Sep- 
tember. He says : 

"We found the men in the stockade ragged, nearly 
destitute of clothing, totally unprovided with shelter ex- 
cept that which tattered blankets could afford. They 
looked nearly starved. They were skeletons covered 
with skin. The prison seemed very crowded to us, al- 
though there were thousands brought there after that. 
.... They were in a very filthy condition — indeed, 
there were but two issues of soap made while I was there. 
.... When we first went there the nights were very 
cold. That soon passed away as the season advanced, and 
during the summer it was intensely hot. There were 
twenty-one rainy days in the month of June. Our supply 
of fuel was not regular nor sufficient. We were allowed 
to go several times under guard, six men from a squad 
of ninety, to bring in what we could find in the woods on 
our shoulders ; but the greater part of the time we had 
to rely upon our supply of roots, which we dug out of 
the ground or grubbed for in the swamp — pitch-pine 
roots Eations were issued raw, many times with- 
out fuel to cook them. The squad of ninety, of which I 
was sergeant, went from the 80th of June to the 80th of 
Augast without any issue of wood from the authorities" 
(Record, pp. 861 and 862). 

Again he says : " The quality of the rations was very 
poor; the quantity greatly varied. There were days 
when we got nothing at all. I made a note of at least 

two such days There were other days when we 

got but very little ; other days enough, such as it was. 

K 



218 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

When my regiment went there the men were healthy. 
They gradually sickened, until, I remember, one morning 
at roll-call, out of my ninety there were thirty-two who 
were not able to stand up. This resulted principally 
from scurvy and diarrhoea. This was on the 21st of Au- 
gust, a number of the men of my squad having died up 
to that time. The mass of the men had to depend on 
the brook for their water. It at many times was exceed- 
ingly filthy. I have seen it completely covered with 
floating grease, and dirt, and offal. After the prisoners 
had been there some time they dug some wells, and there 
were some springs along the south side of the prison, on 
the edge of the hill by the swamp, but the supply from 
that source was entirely inadequate ; they supplied the 

wants of a few Of the four hundred men captured 

with me, more than three hundred are dead ; they died 
in prison, or a few days after being paroled, and that is a 
larger percentage of living than there is in many regi- 
ments. The 24:th New York Battery, which was cap- 
tured at Plymouth, was nearly annihilated" (Record, p. 
867). 

This is the simple unvarnished narrative of perhaps 
as intelligent a witness as has been upon the stand. He 
has written a book, entitled " Life and Death in Southern 
Prisons," which has been used extensively by counsel 
for the accused. 

I do not want to burden the record with a recapitu- 
lation of all that these witnesses have testified to, but I 
think it can be safely said that not one word of Robert 
H. Kellogg's has been or can be disproved. There are 
many of his comrades who fully confirm him, without 



ANDERSONVILLE. 219 

addiog any special facts that would tend to elucidate this 
point. These I shall omit in this connection. There are 
others, however, who give additional facts bearing on this 
subject, and I beg your indulgence while I refer to t^iem. 

Boston Corbett's testimony brings out some facts to 
which I first will call your attention. Speaking of the 
heat, he says, " It was so great that I have the marks 
upon my shoulders yet" (Kecord, p. 425). Of the brook, 
and the swamp bordering it, he says, "It was a living 
mass of putrefaction and filth ; there were maggots there 
a foot deep ; any time we turned over the soil we could 
see the maggots in a living mass. I have seen the sol- 
diers wading through it, digging for roots to use for fuel ; 
I have seen around the swamp the sick in great num- 
bers, lying pretty much as soldiers lie when they are 
down to rest in line after a march ; in the morning I 
could- see those who had died during the night ; and in 
the daytime I could see them exposed to the heat of the 
sun, with their feet swelled to an enormous size — in many 
cases large gangrene sores, the sores filled with maggots 
and flies which they were unable to keep off; I have 
seen men lay there in an utter destitution, not able to 
help themselves, lying in their own filth. They gener- 
ally chose that place (near the swamp), those who were 
most offensive, because others would drive them away, 
not wanting to be near those who had such bad sores. 
They chose it because of its being so near to the sinks. 
In one case a man died there, I am satisfied, from the 
effects of lice ; when the clothes were taken off his body, 
the lice seemed as thick as the garment — a living mass." 

Again: "The water in the stockade was often very 



ANDERSONVILLE. 

filthy. Sometimes it was middling clear. At times I 
would go to those who had wells dug ; sometimes they 
would give me a drink, sometimes they would not ; they 
used such rough language to me that I turned away 
parched with thirst, and drank water from the stream 
rather than beg it from the men who had wells" (Eec- 
ord, p. 437). 

Again: "The minds of the prisoners were in many 
cases so affected that the prisoners became idiotic" (Rec- 
ord, p. 439). 

On page 452 of the Eecord, he says, "I have taken 
food given me to the stream and washed the maggots 
from it. I have seen them in the sores of soldiers there, 
and I have seen them in such a way that it is hardly fit 
to describe in this court." 

Too terrible for belief as this may seem to be, it stands 
confirmed by at least fifty witnesses. 

Martin E. Hogan is a witness whom the court will 
remember as among the more intelligent, and, at the 
same time, truthful and candid. His observations were 
confined mainly to the hospital, but I feel impelled to 
make a brief extract from his testimony in regard to the 
stockade. 

He says: "At the time of my arrival there (speaking of 
the stockade) it was very much crowded, so much so that 
you could scarcely elbow your way through the crowd 
in any part of the camp. I noticed a great many men 
lying helpless on the ground, seemingly without care, 
without any body to attend to them, lying in their own 
filth ; a great many of them calling for water ; a great 
many crying for food ; nobody apparently paying any 



ANDERSONVILLE. 221 

heed to them ; others almost destitute of clothing, so nu- 
merous that I could not begin to say how many" (Eec- 
ord, p. 515). 

Then follows testimony similar to that of Boston Cor- 
bett in regard to the swamp and vermin in it. 

Andrew J. Spring, who went to Andersonville in May, 
1864, says that, upon entering the stockade, "I found the 
prisoners destitute of clothing ; I could not tell, in many 
cases, whether they were white men or negroes." 

On the 27th of the same month he was detailed for 
duty outside. After being outside the stockade about six 
weeks, he says, " I applied to the lieutenant of the guard 
at the gate, and gave him twelve dollars in greenbacks 
to let me go in and stay an hour to see our boys. I went 
in, and spent an hour inside the stockade. A great many 
of the boys were very poor. They were some of my own 
best friends, whom I could not recognize till they came 
and shook hands with me, and made themselves known ; 
even then I could hardly believe they were the same 
men. I have seea men, acquaintances of mine, who 
would go around there, not knowing any thing at all — 
hardly noticing any thing ; I have seen men crippled up 
so that they had scarcely any life in them at all ; they 
would lie on the ground, to all appearance dead ; I went 
up to several who I thought were dead, but I found they 
had a little life in them." 

James H. Davidson (Eecord, p. 986-1), speaking of the 
condition of the stockade, says, "I have seen men who 
had the appearance of being starved to death. I have 
seen men pick up and eat undigested food that had passed 
through other men all through the camp. It came from 



222 ANDERSONVILLE. 

men wlio were not able to go to the slough, and they 
would find it all through the camp." This, it will be re- 
membered, is testified to by very many. 

Daniel W. Burringer says, "I have seen men eat un- 
digested food that had passed through other men ; they 
would wash it and eat it — pick it up from the sinks" 
(Record, p. 1125). 

Condition of the Hospital. 

It is not proposed to enter as fully into the condition 
of the hospital as might be done from the reports and 
evidence before us. Sufficient will be given, however, 
to warrant the conclusion that it was very little better 
than that of the stockade itself; and, in view of the dis- 
crimination which the surgeons were directed to make in 
the admission of men from the stockade into the hospital, 
we can readily understand why the prisoners almost uni- 
formly bade their comrades farewell when they were 
taken from the stockade to the hospital. The evidence 
which I shall bring to your recollection will also justify 
the remark made by one of the surgeons, who says that 
it really was no hospital. 

Here, also, we have recourse to the official report of 
Dr. Joseph Jones, in which we find his remarks upon the 
condition of the hospital quite as lucid and elaborate as 
those in reference to the stockade. 

After speaking of the stream running through one cor- 
ner of the hospital stockade, and stating that its upper 
portion was used for washing by the patients, and the 
lower portion as a sink, he remarks : 

" This part of the stream is a semi-fluid mass of hu- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 228 

man excrement, and ofFal, and filth of all kinds. This 
immense cess-pool, fermenting beneath the hot sun, emit- 
ted an overpowering stench North of the hospital 

grounds, the stream which flows through the stockade 
pursues its sluggish and filthy course. The exhalations 
from the swamp, which is loaded with the excrement of 
the prisoners confined in the stockade, exert their delete- 
rious influences on the inmates of the hospital." 

Within the hospital inclosure, less than five acres, he 
says, "The patients and attendants, near two thousand, 
are crowded, and are but poorly supplied with old and 
ragged tents, A large number of them are without any 
bunks in the tents, and lay upon the ground, oftentimes 
without even a blanket. No beds or straw appear to 
have been furnished." 

The tents extended to within a few yards of the small 
stream, which, as he before observed, was used as a privy, 
and was loaded with excrement. 

"I observed," he says, " a large pile of corn-bread, 
bones, and filth of all kinds, thirty feet in diameter, and 
several feet in height, swarming with myriads of flies, in 
a vacant space near the pots used for cooking. Millions 
of flies swarmed over every thing, and covered the faces 
of the sleeping patients, crowded down their mouths, and 
deposited their maggots upon the gangrenous wounds of 
the living and the mouths of the dead. Musquitoes in 
great numbers also infested the tents, and many of the 
patients were so stung by these pestiferous insects that 
they resembled those suffering with a slight attack of 
measles. The police and hygiene of the hospital was de- 
fective in the extreme" (Record, pp. 4350-4351). 



224 ANDERSONVILLE. 

Again : " Many of the sick were literally incrusted 
with dirt and filth, and covered with vermin. When a 
gangrene wound needed washing, the limb was thrust out 
a little from the blanket, or board, or rags upon which 
the patient was lying, and water poured over it, and all 
the putrescent matter allowed to soak into the ground 

floor of the tent I saw the most filthy rags, which 

had been applied several times and imperfectly washed, 
used in dressing recent wounds. Where hospital gan- 
grene was prevailing, it was impossible for any wound 
to escape contagion under the circumstances" (Kecord, 
p. 854). 

Of the treatment of the dead, he says, "The manner of 
disposing of the dead is also calculated to depress the al- 
ready despondent spirits of these men .... The dead- 
house is merely a frame covered with old tent-cloth and 
a few bushes, situated in the southwestern corner of the 
hospital grounds. When a patient dies, he is simply laid 
in the narrow street in the front of his tent until he is re- 
moved by the Federal negroes detailed to carry off the 
dead. If the patient dies during the night, he lies there 
until morning ; and during the day, even, the dead were 
frequently allowed to remain for hours in these walks. 
In the dead-house the corpses lay on the bare ground, 
and were in most cases covered with filth and vermin" 
(Eecord, p. 4355). 

Farther on he says, "The cooking arrangements are 
of the most defective character. Two large iron pots, 
similar to those used for boiling sugar-cane, appeared to 
be the only cooking utensils furnished by the hospital 
for the cooking of near two thousand men, and the pa- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 225 

tients were dependent in a great measure on their own 

miserable utensils The air of the tents was foul 

and disagreeable in the extreme, and, in fact, the entire 
grounds emitted a most noxious and disgusting smell. I 
entered nearly all the tents, and carefully examined the 
cases of interest, and especially the cases of gangrene, 
during the prosecution of my pathological inquiries at 
Andersonville, and therefore enjoyed every opportunity 
to judge correctly of the hygiene and police of the hospi- 
tal" (Record, p. 4357). 

To show that this frightful condition of affairs did 
cease after a great portion of the prisoners were removed, 
Dr. Jones observes : " The ratio of mortality continued 
to increase during September; for, notwithstanding the 
removal of half the entire number of prisoners during 
the early portion of the month, seventeen hundred and 
fifty-seven deaths were registered from September 1st to 
the 21st, and the largest number of deaths upon any one 
day occurred during this month, on the 16th, viz., one 
hundred and nineteen. 

Afterward, remarking upon the causes of the great 
mortality among the Federal prisoners, he says, "The 
chief causes of death were scurvy and its results, bowel 
affections, and chronic and acute diarrhoea, and dysen- 
tery. The bowel affections appeared to have been due 
to the diet and habits of the patients, the depressed, de- 
jected state of the nervous system and moral and intel- 
lectual powers, and to the effluvia arising from decom- 
posed animal and vegetable filth" (Record, p. 4372). 

He says also : "Almost every amputation was followed 
finally by death, either from the effects of gangrene, or 

K2 



226 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



from the prevailing diarrhoea and dysentery So 

far as my observation extended, very few of the cases of 
amputation for gangrene recovered" (Record, p. 4878). 

The evidence of Dr. John C. Bates is important as 
showing the condition of the hospital. He was a rebel 
surgeon, on duty at Andersbnville from the middle of 
September, 1864, to the last of March, 1865, embracing a 
period when it is claimed the sufferings were much light- 
er than they had been. This, we have already seen by 
Dr. Jones's report, was not true, even after thousands of 
the prisoners had been sent away, and we shall see from 
the testimony of Dr. Bates that it is wholly incorrect. 
He says : 

"Upon going to the ward to which I was assigned, I 
was shocked at the appearance of things. The men were 
lying partially nude, and djing, and lousy ; a portion of 
them in the sand, and others upon boards which had 
been stuck up on little props, pretty well crowded ; a ma- 
jority of them in small tents I would go to other 

parts of the hospital when officer of the day. The men 
would gather round me and ask for a bone. I would 
give them whatever I could find at my disposition with- 
out robbing others. I well knew that an appropriation 
of one ration took it from the general issue ; that when I 
appropriated an extra ration to one man, some one else 
would fall minus. I then fell back upon the distribution 
of bones. They did not presume to ask me for meat at 
all. So far as rations are concerned, that is the way mat- 
ters went along for some time after I went there 

They could not be furnished with any clothing except the 
clothing of the dead, which was generally appropriated to 



ANDERSONVILLE. 227 

the living. There was a partial supply of fuel, but not 
sufficient to keep the men warm and prolong their exist- 
ence. As medical officer of the day, I made examinations 
beyond my own ward, and reported the condition. As 
a general thing, the patients were destitute, filthy, and 
partly naked. The clamor all the while was for some- 
thing to eat" (Kecord, p. 125). 

Dr. G. Gr. Eoy, whose testimony was before referred to, 
in speaking of the hospital, says, "I found it in a very 
deplorable condition. There was no comfort attached to 
it whatever. Many of the tents were badly worn, torn, 
and rotten, and, of course, permitted the water to leak 
through. The patients were not furnished with bunks, 
or bedding, or bedclothing, or any thing of that sort" 
(Eecord,p.480). 

He speaks, as did all the other medical officers on duty 
there, of the great dearth of medicines, but also concurs 
with most of them in the opinion that medicine was not 
so much needed as proper diet; and he confirms gener- 
ally the description given by Dr. Jones. 

On the 26th day of September, Dr. Amos Thornburg, 
assistant surgeon, in a report to Dr. Stevenson, the sur- 
geon in charge (see Exhibit No. 80), calls special atten- 
tion to the very bad sanitary condition of the hospital. 
He reports "that patients are lying on the cold ground 
without bedding or blankets ; also, that we have a very 
scanty supply of medicines, and that the rations are not 
of the proper kind, and not issued in proper quantity." 



228 ANDERSONVILLE. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

Charge of Conspiracy. — The Law implicating Co-conspirators. — ^Davis. 
— Seddon. — Winder. — Intimacy of.Davis and Winder. 

The Charge of Conspiracy. 

We come now to the consideration of tlie third branch 
of the subject. Having presented a faithful representa- 
tion — faithful, because the witnesses themselves have 
given it — of the condition of the stockade and the hos- 
pital, we shall proceed to unfold the extent of the con- 
spiracy, the purposes of the conspirators, and the cruel 
and devilish means resorted to to accomplish their ends. 

I confess to you, gentlemen, that I enter upon this 
branch of the argument with regret and reluctance. I 
confess that, to a greater or less extent, our nationality 
and the good name we bear are involved in the issue ; 
but I do not fear to present to the world on this account 
this great conspiracy of treason, this confederation of 
traitors, though it shock the moral sentiment of the uni- 
verse ; for, however much we may deplore the fact that 
at its head and front were Americans, once prominent in 
the councils of the nation, they have forfeited all rights 
— they have ceased in any way to represent the true 
spirit of Americanism — they are outlaws and criminals, 
and can not, by their crimes, attaint our fair escutcheon. 
It is the work of treason, the legitimate result of that sum 
of all villainies, and which, by many, very many proofs 
during the past four years, has shown itself capable of 



ANDERSONVILLE. 229 

this last one developed. When we remember that the 
men here charged, and those inculpated, but not named 
in the indictment, are some of them men who were at 
the head of the late rebellion from its beginning to its 
close, and, as such chiefs, sanctioned the brutal conduct 
of their soldiers as early as the first battle of Bull Eun — 
who perpetrated unhd5,rd-of cruelties at Libbj and Belle 
Island — who encouraged the most atrocious propositions 
of retaliation in their Congress — who sanctioned a guer- 
rilla mode of warfare — who instituted a system of steam- 
boat burning and firing of cities — who employed a sur- 
geon in their service to steal into our capital city infected 
clothing — who approved the criminal treatment of the 
captured garrisons at Fort Pillow, Fort "Washington, and 
elsewhere — who were guilty of the basest treachery of 
sending paroled prisoners into the field — who planted tor- 
pedoes in the paths of our soldiers — who paid their emis- 
saries for loading shells in the shape of coals, and inter- 
mixing them in the fuel of our steamers — who ordered 
an indiscriminate firing upon our transports, and vessels, 
and railroad trains, regardless of whom they contained — 
who organized and carried to a successful termination a 
most diabolical conspiracy to assassinate the President of 
the United States : when we remember these things of 
these men, may we not, without hesitancy, bring to light 
the conspiracy here charged ? 

Before, however, entering into a discussion of the evi- 
dence, let me present the law governing in cases of con- 
spiracy. I quote from the very able argument of Hon. 
John A. Bingham, delivered for the prosecution in the 
trial of the conspirators for the assassination of President 



280 ANDERSONVILLE. 

Lincoln, wliose law propositions and authorities given can 
not be gainsaid. 

"If the conspiracy be established as laid, it results that 
"whatever was said or done by either of the parties there- 
to in the furtherance or execution of the common design, 
is the declaration or act of all the other parties to the 
conspiracy ; and this, whether the other parties, at the 
time such words were uttered or such acts done by their 
confederates, were present or absent." 

The declared and accepted rule of law in cases of con- 
spiracy is that, " where several persons are proved to 
have combined together for the same illegal purpose, any 
act done by one of the party in pursuance of the original 
concerted plan and in reference to the common object, is, 
in the contemplation of law as well as of sound reason, 
the act of the whole party, and therefore the proof of the 
act will be evidence against any of the others who were 
engaged in the same general conspirac}^, without regard 
to the question whether the prisoner is proved to have 
been concerned in the particular transaction" (Phillips on 
Evidence, p. 210). 

The same rule obtains in cases of treason : " If several 
persons agree to levy war, some in one place and some 
in another, and one party do actually appear in arms, 
this is levying of war by all, as well those who were not 
in arms as those who were, if it were done in pursuance 
of the original concert, for those who made the attempt 
were emboldened by the confidence inspired by the gen- 
eral concert, and therefore these particular acts are in 
justice imputable to all the rest" (1 East, Pleas of the 
Crown, p. 97 ; Roscoe, 84). 



ANDERSONVILLE. 231 

In ex parte Bollman and Swartwout, 4 Cranch, 126, 
Marshall, chief justice, rules, "If war be actually levied 
— that is, if a body of men are actually assembled for the 
purpose of effecting by force, for treasonable purpose, all 
those who perform any part, however minute, or howev- 
er remote from the scene of action, and who are actually 
leagued in the general conspiracy, are to be considered 
as traitors." 

In the United States vs. Cole et al.^b McLean, 601, Mr. 
Justice McLean says: "A conspiracy is rarely, if ever, 
proved by positive testimony. When a crime of high 
magnitude is about to be perpetrated by a combination 
of individuals, they do not act openly, but covertly and 
secretly. The purpose formed is known only to those 
who enter into it. Unless one of the original conspira- 
tors betray his companions, and give evidence against 
them, their guilt can only be proved by circumstantial 

evidence It is said by some writers on evidence 

that such circumstances are stronger than positive proof 
A witness swearing positively, it is said, may misappre- 
hend the facts or swear falsely, but that circumstances 

can not lie The common design is the essence of 

the charge ; and this may be made to appear when the 
defendants steadily pursue the same object, whether act- 
ing separately or together, by common or different means, 
all leading to the same unlawful result. And where pri- 
ma facie evidence has been given of a combination, the 

acts or confessions of one are evidence against all 

It is reasonable that where a body of men assume the at- 
tribute of individuality, whether for commercial business 
or the commission of a crime, that the association should 



232 ANDERSONVILLE. 

be bound by tlie acts of one of its members in carrying 
out the design." 

"It is the rule of law, not to be overlooked in this 
connection, that the conspiracy or agreement of the par- 
ties, or some of them, to act in concert to accomplish the 
unlawful act charged, may be established either by direct 
evidence of a meeting or consultation for the illegal pur- 
pose charged, or, more usually, from the very nature of 
the case, by circumstantial evidence" (2 Starkie, 232). 

Lord Mansfield ruled "that it was not necessary to 
prove the actual fact of a conspiracy, but that it may be 
collected from collateral circumstances" (Parsons's Case, 
1 W. Blackstone, 392). 

"If," says a great authority on the law of evidence, 
"on a charge of conspiracy, it appears that two persons 
by their acts are pursuing the same object, and often by 
the same means, or one performing part of the act, and 
the other completing it for the attainment of the same 
object, the jury may draw the conclusion there is a con- 
spiracy. If a conspiracy be formed, and a person join in 
it afterward, he is equally guilty with the original con- 
spirators" (Roscoe, 415). 

" The rule of the admissibility of the acts and decla- 
rations of any one of the conspirators, said or done in 
furtherance of the common design, applies in cases as 
well where only part of the conspirators are indicted and 
upon trial. Thus, upon an indictment for murder, if it 
appear that others, together with the prisoner, conspired 
to commit the crime, the act of one, done in pursuance 
of that intention, will be evidence against the rest" (2 
Starkie, 237). " They are alike guilty as principals" 



ANDEESONVILLE. 233 

(Commonwealth vs. Knapp, 9 Pickering, 496 ; 10 Picker- 
ing, 477 ; 6 Term Keports, 528 ; 11 East, 584). 

Let us see what the evidences are of a common design 
to murder by starvation these hapless, helpless wretches. 
First, then, who are the officers, high and low, civil and 
military, whom the evidence implicates in this great 
crime ? As I shall show you by the testimony, there are 
associated in this conspiracy, as directly implicated and 
as perpetrators, the prisoner at the bar. Brigadier Greneral 
John H. Winder, Surgeon Josiah H. White, Surgeon K. E. 
Stevenson, Dr. Kerr, Captain R. B. Winder, Captain W.S. 
Winder, Captain Reed, James H. Duncan, W. W. Turner, 
and Benjamin Harris. Remote from the scene, but no 
less responsible than those named — nay, rather with a 
greater weight of guilt resting upon them, are the leader 
of the rebellion, his war minister, his surgeon general, his 
commissary and quartermaster general, his commissioner 
of Exchange, and all others sufficiently high in authority 
to have prevented these atrocities, and to whom the 
knowledge of them was brought. 

Chief among the conspirators and the actual participa- 
tors in the crime, the immediate tool first and last of the 
rebel government, we shall see, was General Winder. It 
is proper, therefore, that we should know who he was, and 
the precise relations he bore to the government which 
he represented. 

We learn from many sources that he had for a long 
time prior to the organization of the Anderson ville pris- 
on been at the head of the military prisons in and around 
Richmond, holding also the position of provost marshal 
of that important centre of the rebellion. 



234 ANDERSONVILLE. 

We learn from the witness J. B. Jones (Eecord, p. 
2531) that his rule as provost marshal was almost a 
reign of terror ; that his authority was so great he could 
arrest men indiscriminately even in distant states, and 
that he was constantly sustained and supported by Jef- 
ferson Davis, and his confidential adviser and premier, 
Mr. Benjamin. 

The witness Cashmeyer (Record, pp. 2840-41), the con- 
fidential detective and constant companion of General 
Winder till the close of the rebellion, says, *' Their rela- 
tions (those of Davis and Winder) were very friendly 
indeed, and very confidential ; I often heard General 
Winder say so ; I often saw him go there and come from 
there." Abont the time General Winder's reign of ter- 
ror was at its climax, and there was great opposition felt 
and expressed toward him both in and out of the rebel 
Congress, a combined effort was made to have him re- 
lieved and sent away. Generals Bragg and Ransom being 
prominent in the movement. 

At this time Cashmeyer says, *' President Davis was 
his (Winder's) especial friend ; when the order relieving 
General Winder came from the War Department, he 
took it and went up to Mr. Davis. President Davis in- 
dorsed on it, as well as I can recollect, that ' it was en- 
tirely unnecessary and uncalled for.' " Some time after 
this it was thought wise by the rebel authorities to or- 
ganize the Andersonville Prison, and the whole matter 
was placed in the hands of General Winder by orders is- 
sued from the War Department for that purpose. Gen- 
eral Winder himself did not go to Andersonville until 
about the 1st of June, but he sent forward, as we learn 



ANDERSONVILLE. 235 

from the testimony of Cashmeyer (Record, p. 2842), of 
Spencer (Record, p. 2454), of Colonel Persons (Record, p. 
600), of Captain Wright (Record, p. 790), and others, his 
son Captain W. S. Winder, of his staff, as his special ex- 
ecutive officer, and, as we learn from the testimony of 
Colonel Persons (Record, p. 613), " with absolute discre- 
tion in the location of the prison." This was in the lat- 
ter part of December, 1863. 

Shortly after, another staff officer of General Winder's, 
a nephew of his. Captain R. B. Winder, a quarter-master, 
arrived at Andersonville, and assumed the duties of his 
office. Captain Wright, in speaking of him (Record, p. 
2447), says : "He told me that he had no orders to report 
to any quarter-master at all ; that he reported directly to 
Richmond, and received his instructions from Richmond." 
Subsequently, in the month of March, 1864, General Win- 
der sent still another of his staff officers, the prisoner at 
the bar, who, as we learn from his report, made May 8th 
(see Exhibit No. 16), was assigned to the command of 
the prison on the 27th of March. 

Of him Colonel Persons says (Record, p. 602 and fol- 
lowing), "He came direct from Richmond — my under- 
standing was, by order of General Winder. I saw an offi- 
cial order to that effect. I received a communication, 
about the time Captain Wirz reached there, from General 
Winder. It stated that Captain Wirz was an old prison 
officer, a very reliable man, and capable of governing 
prisoners, and wound up that I would give him com- 
mand of the prison proper." 

From the return of staff officers made by General Win- 
der after he had himself arrived at Andersonville, and 



236 ANDEKSONVILLE. 

who, he says, were acting under orders of Brigadier Gen- 
eral John H. Winder, commanding the post at Anderson- 
ville, Georgia, commanding the camps and stockade con- 
taining Federal prisoners of war, and the guard troops 
for the same, the prison of Federal prisoners of war at 
Macon, etc., etc., we find that Dr. Isaiah H. White, also 
on his staff, was assigned to duty at Andersonville, by 
orders of the War Department at Eichmond, as chief 
surgeon in charge of the prison hospital. He arrived at 
Andersonville about the same time as the two Captains 
Winder. 

This comprises the original corps of officers sent from 
Eichmond to carry out the hellish purposes of the rebel 
government, and which, as we shall see as we advance, 
was most faithfully done by them. Can there be any 
doubt as to what the original purpose of the rebel 
government was ? Let us go to the very origin of the 
prison. 

You will remember that when Colonel Persons was on 
the stand, he told you that, assuming to do what the law 
and the army regulations made it the duty of the quar- 
ter-master to do, and which, in his case. Captain Winder 
had wholly neglected to do, he sent to the different saw- 
mills along the line of the railroad for lumber, moved, as 
he tells you, by a feeling of humanity, and a desire to 
alleviate, in some way, the sufferings of the prisoners. 
He says (Eecord, p. 608): "I had concentrated there, I 
suppose, about five or six train-loads of lumber ; I sup- 
pose nearly fifty car-loads." I quote farther from the 
Eecord the following : 

" Q. Were you permitted to erect a shelter? 



ANDERSON VILLE. 237 

"J.. I was in the act of doing so — was just carrying 
the lumber, when I was relieved. 

"§. By whom? 

"J.. By General Winder. 

" Q. Had he arrived on the same day? 

" ^. He arrived there about that time. 

" Q. Was your plan carried out? 

"J.. I went into the stockade several times after I was 
relieved from duty, and I saw no shelter there. I saw 
forty or fifty houses springing up outside of the grounds. 
The lumber disappeared in that way." 

At this time the journal of the prison shows there 
were over nineteen thousand prisoners in the stockade. 
This was the first official act of Greneral Winder on his 
arrival. It was the third time Colonel Persons had given 
mortal offense, and he was no longer to be tolerated. 
What could more strongly present the unmitigated dia- 
bolism of that friend of President Davis — that man, upon 
the order relieving whom the rebel chief wrote, "It is 
entirely unnecessary and uncalled for?" This was the 
man who found a ready advocate in the rebel premier, 
Mr. Benjamin, and who was not only sustained from the 
first to the last by his chief, but was rewarded for official 
conduct that will place his name among those of the most 
infamous of any age or clime. General Winder's second 
act was to establish himself comfortably, and at a respect- 
ful distance from the prison, where he remained from the 
first of June until early in the fall. 

Notice now, as we advance, how the -sufferings of this 
prison increased — how every thing from which torture 
and death could result was resorted to — how all those 



238 ANDERSON VILLE. 

methods of inhuman punishment instituted by the pris- 
oner were approved and sanctioned by General Winder, 
and that, during the whole period of his command, not a 
single act is recorded which does not prove him to have 
been not only "a brutal man," as Mr. Spencer says he 
was, but that he was the chief instrument in the hands 
of a wicked, treasonable conspiracy to murder the pris- 
oners of war in his custody. He came there with author- 
ity unlimited, with discretion to do whatever circum- 
stances required to carry out the purpose of his com- 
mand. In an appeal published by him to the citizens of 
the surrounding counties (see Exhibit No. 29), he calls 
for "two thousand negroes, properly supplied with axes, 
spades, and picks, and supported by the requisite num- 
ber of wagons and teams," for the purpose of rendering 
more hopeless the imprisonment of our soldiers, holding 
over the people of that vicinity the terrors of impress- 
ment, which, in this appeal, he claims to have authority 
to make. Yet, with all this power, with all these appli- 
ances at hand, and within reach of his call, not a single 
shelter did he ever erect — not a ditch did he dig to drain 
that horrible cesspool below the stockade and within it — 
not a tithe of the wood absolutely necessary did he cause 
to be taken into the stockade — not once did he visit that 
place over which he had supreme control — not a well did 
he cause to be dug within it — not one order did he issue 
to abate one jot or tittle of the frightful rigors of that 
prison-pen — not a kindly or humane sentiment is he 
shown, during that whole time, to have uttered toward 
these prisoners in his custody. On the contrary, he scat- 
tered to the four winds, as we have seen, that immense 



ANDERSONVILLE. 239 

pile of lumber accumulated by Colonel Persons for the 
purpose of erecting shelters in the stockade ; he approved 
all that had been done by his subordinate, the prisoner, 
even recommending him for promotion ; he legalized the 
detail of Turner, who was a Confederate soldier, to take 
command of a pack of hounds to run down prisoners, 
and afterward permanently detached him from his regi- 
ment for that purpose ; he authorized and ordered the 
hanging of six prisoners of war within the stockade, 
which, by all the laws of war, was no more nor less than 
murder, so far as he was concerned ; he brutally refused 
the philanthropic ladies of Americus twice in their at- 
tempts to render assistance to the sick at the hospital, 
even intimating on one of those occasions to those ladies 
of the highest respectability that a repetition of their hu- 
mane efforts would bring upon them a punishment too 
infamous to be named. Is it still contended that there 
was no conspiracy; that these things evinced no com- 
mon design to destroy ; that of all these things the Eich- 
mond government was in blissful ignorance ? Let us see. 
On the 21st of July, 1864, General Winder addressed a 
letter to the "War Department at Eichmond (see Exhibit 
No. 17), dated Andersonville, in which he uses the fol- 
lowing language, before quoted: "You speak in your 
indorsement of placing the prisoners properly. I do not 
exactly comprehend what is intended by it. I know 
of but one way to place them, and that is to put them 
into the stockade, where they have four or five square 
yards to the man." 

Is it possible that he did not comprehend what was 
intended by the War Department? Can it be that he 



240 ANDERSONVILLE. 

knew of but one way to place those prisoners prop- 
erly ? 

His government did not dare to speak more definitely, 
nor was it necessary to such a man as General Winder, 
occupying the position he did, and with the letter of 
Eobert Ould in his private desk, written as early as 
March, 1863 — a private letter written by himself, and in- 
dorsed by his own hand. The 07ie way was the way 
given by his original instructions; it was the way un- 
derstood by W. S. Winder when he said it was the inten- 
tion to kill more Yankees at Andersonville than they did 
at the front ; it was the way meant and well understood 
by General Winder when he said to Mr. Spencer that, for 
his own part, he would as lief the damned Yankees 
would die there as any where else ; that, upon the whole, 
he did not know that it was not better for them (Eecord, 
p. 2467), and which he afterward disclosed to Colonel 
Chandler in the remark, "It is better to leave them in 
their present condition until their number has been suffi- 
ciently reduced by death to make the present arrange- 
ments suffice for their accommodation ;" it was the way 
well understood by the rebel government when, in the 
teeth of the protests of humane officers, and in the face 
of the official reports of the mortality of that place, they 
continued to forward prisoners train-load after train-load 
to an already overcrowded prison ; it was the way dic- 
tated to the agent of that government, Eobert Ould, and 
revealed by him in his letter to Winder (see Exhibit No. 
— ), when he declares, speaking of exchanges, " The ar- 
rangement Iliave made works largely in our favor; we get 
rid of a set of miserable wretches^ and receive in return some 



ANDEESONVILLE. 241 

of the hest material I ever saw f^ adding, " TJiis^ of course^ is 
hetiueen ourselves.'''' 

It was the way understood perfectly by Greneral Howell 
Cobb when, in a speech at Andersonville, he pointed with 
terrible significance to the grave-yard, remarking, " That 
is the way I would care for them." 

It was the way well understood by the prisoner at the 
bar, who is shown to have uttered sentiments similar to 
those expressed by W. S. Winder on more than one hund- 
red occasions ; it was the way, and the only way, ever 
indicated by the chief of the rebel government and his 
Secretary of War, else why did he, with this frightful pic- 
ture before him, deliberately fold General Winder's letter, 
indorsing it " Noted— file. J. A. S. ?" 

Let us advance another step in the evidence connect- 
ing the Richmond government with these atrocities. 
Colonel D. T. Chandler, of the rebel War Department, 
pursuant to an order of his chief of July 25th, 1864, di- 
recting him to make an inspection at Andersonville and 
other places in the Confederacy, submitted a report dated 
Andersonville, August 5th, 1864, and which reached the 
War Department August 17th, 1864. This officer, from 
whose report we have already quoted, gives a graphic 
description of the sufferings of the prisoners of war, and 
in earnest terms beseeches his government that no more 
be sent forward to that place, and that immediate steps 
be taken to relieve the sufferings of those prisoners al- 
ready there, making many practical suggestions for their 
comfort which he thought could be readily carried out. 
In a supplemental report, also dated August 5th, and 
which was received with the report first named, he says, 

L 



242 ANDEESONVILLE. 

" My duty requires me respectfully to recommend a 
change in the officer in command of the post, Brigadier 
General John H. Winder, and the substitution in his 
place of some one who unites both energy and good 
judgment with some feelings of humanity and consider- 
ation for the welfare and comfort (so far as is consistent 
with their safe-keeping) of the vast number of unfortu- 
nates placed under his control — some one, at least, who 
does not advocate, deliberately and in cold blood, the pro- 
priety of leaving them in their present condition until 
their number has been sufficiently reduced by death to 
make the present arrangements suffice for their accom- 
modation, and who will not consider it a matter of self- 
laudation and boasting that he has never been inside the 
stockade — a place the liorrors of which it is difficult to 
describe, and which are a disgrace to civilization — the 
condition of which he might, by the exercise of a little 
energy and judgment, eve7i loiih the limited mea7is at his 
command, have considerably improved." 

In his examination touching this report, Colonel Chand- 
ler says, " I noticed that General Winder seemed very 
indifferent to the welfare of the prisoners, indisposed to 
do any thing, or to do as much as I thought he ought to 
do to alleviate their sufferings. I remonstrated with him 
as well as I could, and he used that language which I re- 
ported to the department with reference to it — the lan- 
guage stated in the report when I spoke of the great 
mortality existing among the prisoners, and pointed out 
to him that the sickly season was coming on, and that it 
must necessarily increase unless something was done for 
their relief; the swamp, for instance, drained, proper food 



ANDERSONVILLE. 243 

famished and in better quantity, and other sanitary sug- 
gestions which I made to him. He replied to me that it 
was better to see half of them die than to take care of 
the men." 

And to show that he can not be mistaken in what he 
avers, Colonel Chandler speaks of Major Hall, his assist- 
ant, having first reported to him similar language used 
by General Winder to him, and remarks, "I told Major 
Hall that I thought it incredible — that he must be mis- 
taken : he told me no ; ' that he had not only said it once, 
but twice ;' and, as I have stated, he subsequently made 
use of this expression to me." 

Now let us see what the rebel government had to do 
with this report. As I before remarked, it reached Eich- 
mond on the 17th day of August. Immediately on its 
reception, as we learn from Captain C. M. Selph, of the 
rebel War Department, it was carefully briefed, and ex- 
tracts made and sent to the heads of the different bu- 
reaus, the commissary general and the quarter- master 
general ; a report of Dr. White, an inclosure of Colonel 
Chandler's report, being sent to the surgeon general. 
The entire report was then laid before the Secretary of 
War, Mr. Seddon, and, there can not be the shadow of a 
doubt, was immediately, and fully, and seriously consid- 
ered ; nor can there be any doubt that Mr. Davis and his 
war minister conferred together with regard to this sub- 
ject. 

Captain Selph, speaking of a conversation between 
himself and Colonel Woods, a staff officer of Jefferson 
Davis, in regard to the prison at Anderson ville, says, 
"During that conversation I obtained that . impression 



244 ANDERSONVILLE. 

that President Davis had some knowledge of it" (Record, 
p. 1565). " This," he says again, " was subsequent to the 
receipt of Colonel Chandler's report." To the question, 
" Would a paper of this kind, on a subject of this magni- 
tude, find its way to the President of the so-called Con- 
federate States in the ordinary way of proceedings?" he 
answered, " Yes, sir, I think it would." 

It will not do to say that this report was buried among 
the multitude of papers that arrived daily in the War 
Office, or that it lay upon Mr. Seddon's table unnoticed. 

Mr. J. B. Jones, private secretary of Mr. Seddon, says 
(Eecord, p. 2836) that he remembers when the report 
was received, but only read the headings, enough to see 
the purport of it, and adds that he thinks it was sent for 
by the Secretary of War. 

Mr. K. I. H. McKean, Chief of the Bureau of War, says 
that he saw it lying on the secretary's table. He also 
speaks of a conversation between himself and the assist- 
ant secretary of war. Judge Campbell, and in which the 
report was spoken of, and in which Judge Campbell, 
speaking of the fearful mortality, remarked, "This looks 
very bad." Captain Selph also testifies that the report 
excited general excitement in the department. 

But we are not left with this evidence alone. This 
report was not sent in like ordinary inspection reports, 
but especial attention was drawn to it by three officials. 
On the day of its receipt it was submitted to the Secre- 
tary of War, as the following indorsement proves beyond 
all doubt : 



ANDERSONVILLE. 245 

"Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, i 
August 18th, 1864. 5" 

' ' Eespectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. The 
condition of the prison at Andersonville ^5 a reproach to 
us as a nation. The Engineer and Ordnance Department 
were applied to, and authorized their issue, and I so tele- 
graphed Greneral Winder. Colonel Chandler's recom- 
mendations are coincided in. 

" (Signed) By order of General Cooper. 

'' K. H. Chilton, A. A. and I. G." 

The report passed through the hands of R B. Wellford, 
a confidential clerk employed in the War Department for 
his legal abilities, who also made a brief analysis strong- 
ly seconding Colonel Chilton, Mr. Wellford's analysis be- 
ing again indorsed, and the whole laid before the sec- 
retary by J. A. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, 
with the following indorsement : 

"These reports show a condition of things at Ander- 
sonville which call very loudly for the interposition of 
the department, in order that a change be made. 

" (Signed) J. A. Campbell, Ass. Sec. of War." 

What more could have been needed, or what more 
done, to bring authoritatively and strongly before the 
proper authorities at Richmond the subject of the An- 
dersonville sufferings ? Here were an intelligent inspect- 
ing officer of high rank. Colonel Chandler ; the chief of 
the inspecting bureau. Colonel Chilton ; the chief of the 
bureau of war, McKean ; a confidential clerk, Mr. Well- 
ford ; and the assistant secretary of war, Judge Camp- 



246 ANDERSONVILLE. 

bell, all pressing in the strongest terms the necessity of 
an immediate interposition by the department, and not 
hesitating to declare the prison at Andersonville "a re- 
proach to them as a nation." These appeals might have 
moved hearts of stone ; but, addressed as they were to 
these representatives of a government based upon wrong 
and injustice, that had its origin in a treasonable conspir- 
acy to overthrow the best government on the face of the 
earth, however much they may have moved the hearts 
of those representatives as individuals, they seem to have 
still felt it their duty to adhere to a purpose so cruelly 
and wickedly begun, and thus far so faithfully carried 
out; and they dared not, or would not abandon, even 
then, this atrocious conspiracy. 

McKean says he is not aware the report was ever acted 
upon. Captain Selph says the same ; and we learn from 
the testimony that the report remained with the secre- 
tary, never having come back to the Inspector General's 
Department, where it properly belonged, till about the 
time Mr. Breckinridge succeeded Mr. Seddon, some time 
in 1865, when Colonel Chandler having returned and de- 
manded that some action should be taken on the report, 
or he would resign, it was brought to light and laid be- 
fore Mr. Breckinridge, who would have acted upon it, as 
Captain Selph thinks, but for the rapid change of affairs 
in the Confederacy, and the dissolution of their govern- 
ment soon after. 

And here let us diverge a moment, and follow a por- 
tion of this remarkable report to the Surgeon General's 
Office. We find indorsed upon Exhibit No. 24 the fol- 
lowing : 



\ 



ANDERSONVILLE. 247 

'' Surgeon was authorized some time since to send his 
requisitions for supplies directly to the medical purvey- 
ors. Not having supplies is his own fault ; he should 
have anticipated the wants of the sick by timely requisi- 
tions. It is impossible to order medical officers in place 
of the contract physicians. They are not to be had at 
present. S. P. Mooee, Surgeon General." 

This is the flippant indorsement of the surgeon gen- 
eral, and the only evidence showing his notice of the 
condition of things at Andersonville, and that is all that 
he seems to have done in the matter while Dr. White 
was allowed to remain in charge of the hospital, which, 
as described by the surgeons who were on duty with 
him, seems to have been little less than a dead-house — 
this Dr. White, whose recklessness, brutality, and crime 
are so closely interwoven with that of General Winder, 
the prisoner at the bar, and his associate staff officers, 
that it is hard to discriminate between the cruelty of the 
one and that of the others. It is strange, truly, that the 
surgeon general passed over this* matter with so slight a 
notice of it, when we remember that several weeks pre- 
viously it is shown that he had the whole matter before 
his office, and took action upon it, which makes him no 
less culpable than the others we have mentioned. He 
had called into his counsels an eminent medical gentle- 
man, of high attainments in his profession, and of loyalty 
to the rebel government unquestionable. Amid all the 
details in this terrible tragedy, there seems to me none 
more heartless, wanton, and void of humanity than that 
revealed by the surgeon general to which I am about to 



248 ANDERSONVILLE. 

refer. I quote now from the report of tliis same Dr. 
Joseph Jones, which he sajs (Record, p. 4884) was made 
"in the interest of the Confederate government for the 
use of the Medical Department, in the view that no eye 
would ever see it but that of the surgeon general." 

After a brief introduction to his report, and to show 
under what authority it was made, he quotes a letter from 
the surgeon general, dated ''Surgeon Greneral's Office, 
Eichmond, Virginia, August 6th, 1864." The letter is 
addressed to Surgeon J. H. White, in charge of the hos- 
pital for Federal prisoners, Andersonville, Georgia, and 
is as follows : 

" Sir, — The field of pathological investigation afforded 
by the large collection of Federal prisoners in Georgia is 
of great extent and importance, and it is believed that 
results of value to the profession may be obtained by 
careful examination of the effects of disease upon a large 
body of men subjected to a decided change of climate 
and the circumstances peculiar to prison life. The sur- 
geon in charge of the hospital for Federal prisoners, to- 
gether with his assistants, will afford every facility to 
Surgeon Joseph Jones in the prosecution of the labors 
ordered by the surgeon general. The medical officers 
will assist in the performance of such post-mortems as Dr. 
Jones may indicate, in order that this great field for path- 
ological investigation may be explored for the benefit of 
the Medical Department of the Confederate States armies. 
"S. P. Moore, Surgeon General." 

Pursuant to his orders. Dr. Jones, as he tells us, pro- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 249 

ceeded to Anderson ville, and on September 17th received 
the following pass : 

" Andersonville, September 17, 1864:. 

" Captain, — You will permit Surgeon Joseph Jones, 
who has orders from the surgeon general, to visit the sick 
within the stockade that are under medical treatment. 
Surgeon Jones is ordered to make certain investigations 
which may prove useful to his profession. 
"Very respectfully. 

"By order of General Winder. 
"W. S.WlNDER, A.A.G. 
"Captain H. Wirz, Commanding Prison." 

When we remember that the surgeon general had been 
apprised of the wants of that prison, and that he had 
overlooked the real necessities of the prison, shifting the 
responsibility upon Dr. White, whom he must have 
known was totally incompetent, it is hard to conceive 
with what devilish malice, or criminal devotion to his 
profession, or reckless disregard of the high duties im- 
posed upon him — I scarcely know which — he could sit 
down and deliberately pen such a letter of instructions 
as that given to Dr. Jones. Was it not enough to have 
cruelly starved and murdered our soldiers ? Was it not 
enough to have sought to wipe out their very memories 
by burying them in nameless graves ? Was it not enough 
to have instituted a system of medical treatment the very 
embodiment of charlatanism ? Was not this enough, with- 
out adding to the many other diabolical motives which 
must have governed the perpetrators of these acts this 
scientific object, as deliberate and cold-blooded as one 

L2 



250 ANDERSONVILLE. 

can conceive? The surgeon general could quiet his con- 
science, when the matter was laid before him through 
Colonel Chandler, by indorsing that it was impossible to 
send medical officers to take the places of the contract 
physicians on duty at Andersonville, yet he could select 
at the same time a distinguished gentleman of the med- 
ical profession, and send him to Andersonville, directing 
the whole force of surgeons there to render him every 
assistance, leaving their multiplied duties for that pur- 
pose. Why ? not to alleviate the sufferings of the pris- 
oners ; not to convey to them one ounce more of nutri- 
tious food ; to make no suggestions for the improvement 
of their sanitary condition — for no purpose of this kind, 
but, as the letter of instruction itself shows, for no other 
purpose than "that this great field of pathological inves- 
tigation may be explored for the benefit of the Medical 
Department of the Confederate armies!" 

The Andersonville Prison, so far as the surgeon gen- 
eral was concerned, was a mere dissecting-room, a clinic 
institute, to be made tributary to the Medical Department 
of the Confederate armies. 

But let me return from this digression. One can hard- 
ly believe all these things of a government pretending to 
struggle for a place among civilized nations, yet, horrible 
as it seems, the facts can not be resisted. 

Do I do injustice to the leaders of the rebellion ? Have 
I drawn inferences that are unwarrantable ? Is it indeed 
true that these men, high in authority, are not responsi- 
ble ? I think not. Motives are presumed from actions, 
and actions are louder than words. What was the action 
of Mr. Davis and his war minister upon these reports ? 



ANDERSONVILLE. 251 

The papers were pigeon-holed in the secretary's office, 
not even being dignified by being placed upon the regu- 
lar files in the proper offices, while General Winder, the 
chief accomplice, instead of being removed immediately 
and broken of his commission, and tried for a violation 
of the laws of war, for cruelty, inhumanity, and murder 
— instead of being held up by that government as a warn- 
ing to others, giving a coloring of justice to their cause, 
was promoted, rewarded, and given a command of a 
wider scope and greater power, but still in a position to 
carry out the purposes of his government toward pris- 
oners of war. History is full of examples similar in 
character, where a government, carrying out its ends, has 
selected as tools men not unlike General Winder, and 
history, faithful in the narrative of the facts, is faithful 
also in fixing upon the government who employed such 
persons, and sustained and rewarded them, the responsi- 
bility for the acts of their agents. James II. had his 
Jeffreys ; Philip II. his Duke of Alva ; Louis XIY. his 
Duke de Louvois ; the Emperor of Austria his Haynau ; 
and Jefferson Davis his Winder. 

The closest scrutiny of the immense record of this trial 
will show that, up to the very close of that prison, there 
were no steps taken by the rebel government, by Gener- 
al Winder, or by any of the officers of his staff clothed 
with proper authority, to alleviate in any material partic- 
ular the great sufferings of that place. You will remem- 
ber the uniform testimony of the medical officers, as well 
as of the prisoners who remained there during the winter 
of 1864-5, that there was no perceptible change in the 
condition of the prison, and an examination of the hos- 



252 ANDEESONVILLE, 

pital register will show that the mortality even was great- 
er during that period, in proportion to the number of 
prisoners confined, than it was during the months of its 
most crowded condition. From the prison journal, kept 
by the prisoner himself, we find that in September, the 
mean number of prisoners being seventeen thousand, the 
deaths were two thousand seven hundred"; in October, 
the mean strength being about six thousand seven hund- 
red, the number of deaths was one thousand five hundred 
and sixty — nearly one out of every five ; in ISTovember, 
the mean strength being two thousand three hundred, the 
deaths were four hundred and eighty -five ; while those 
who remained to the very close — till the prison was 
broken up, are described by General Wilson and others 
as having been ''mere skeletons" — ''shadows of men." 
Nor must it be forgotten that the marks of this cruelty 
were so indelibly stamped upon its victims, that thou- 
sands who survived are yet cripples, and will carry to 
their graves the evidence of the horrible treatment to 
which they were subjected. The surgeons of our army 
who treated these shadows of men when they arrived 
within our lines at Jacksonville and Hilton Head tell you 
of hundreds who died before they could be resuscitated ; 
of others permanently disabled ; of others, on their par- 
tial recovery, being started upon their way homeward, 
and being treated again at Annapolis. 

Dr. Yanderkieft, of our army, speaks of the condition 
of those prisoners while under his treatment at that place. 
He says: "They were reduced, suffering from chronic di- 
arrhoea and scurvy ; some of them in a dying condition ; 
some of them died a few days after they arrived, and 



ANDERSONVILLE. 258 

those who did recover were obliged to remain a long 
time in hospital before they were able to return to their 
homes" (Record, p. 505). 

And with that certainty with which science reasons 
from effect to cause, oftentimes after describing the con- 
dition of the men, as it has been brought out in this tes- 
timony, he concludes, " The symptoms and condition of 
the patients presented cases of starvation." 

Nor must it be forgotten, in the summing up of the cu- 
mulative proof of the Andersonville horrors, that numer- 
ous photographs of returned prisoners were introduced 
here, and identified by Drs. Yanderkieft, Balser, and oth- 
ers, as representing cases no worse than hundreds and 
thousands they had seen. So impressive, indeed, and so 
strong seemed this evidence of rebel cruelty, that the 
counsel for the prisoner sought in his cross-examination 
to show that they were fancy sketches. Are we told 
that these were improbable, and can not be believed, be- 
cause it is said Mr. Davis is a good man — not capable of 
such cruelty? Are we told that no direct order of his is 
sh6wn, and therefore, notwithstanding all these facts and 
circumstances narrated, he must be acquitted of all blame? 
The law governing cases of conspiracy does not require 
us to show a direct order; circumstances from which 
guilt may be inferred are sufficient. The rebel chief did 
not find it necessary to issue direct instructions, nor, in- 
deed, could it reasonably be expected. He was too wary, 
too sagacious for that. 

Michelet relates an anecdote of Louis XY. not mala- 
propos. "The illustrious Quesnay, physician to Louis 
XY., who lived in the house of the latter at Yersailles, 



254 ANDERSONVILLE. 

saw the king one day rush in suddenly, and felt alarmed. 
Madame Da Haurret, the witty femme-de-chambre, in- 
quired of him why he seemed so uneasy. ' Madame,' re- 
turned he, ' whenever I see the king, I say to myself there 
is a man who can cut my head off*.' 'Oh,' said she, 'he is 
too goodP'^ The ladies' maid thus summed up in one 
word the guarantees of monarchy. The king was too 
good to cut a man's head ofip; " that was no longer agree- 
able to custom ; but he could with one word send him to 
the Bastile, and there forget him. It remains to be seen 
whether it is better to perish with one blow, or to suffer 
a lingering death for thirty or forty years." 

Mr. Davis was not capable of being the instrument of 
death ; he was too good to be the keeper of a prison, and 
withhold from starving men their scanty rations, but he 
could send them out of his sight, away from the prison 
in plain view of his residence, into the dense forests of 
Georgia, and there forget them. If Jefferson Davis be 
ever brought to trial for his many crimes — and may 
Heaven spare the temple of justice if he is not — it will 
not do for him to upbraid and accuse his willing tools, 
Winder and Wirz, as King John did Hubert for the death 
of Prince Arthur ; they will turn upon him and say, 

" Here is your hand and seal for all I did, 
And in the winking of authority 
Did we understand a law." 

Before advancing farther in the argument, let me de- 
fine briefly the laws of war, which, it is alleged by the 
government in its indictment against this prisoner and 
his co-conspirators, have been inhumanly and atrociously 
violated. One would suppose that an enlightened con- 



ANDEESONVILLE. 255 

science would not consult tlie opinions of writers upon 
laws or ethics to determine the violation of rules govern- 
ing civilized warfare with sufficient certainty to con- 
demn the treatment of prisoners at Andersonville ; yet, as 
the averment is traversed by the prisoner, and it is insist- 
ed that no violation of the humane principles governing 
nations in war is shown, I must trespass upon the court 
a moment before proceeding. In the forum of nations 
there is a higher law — a law paramount to any rule of 
action prescribed by either of them, and which can not 
be abrogated or nullified by either. Whatever the pe- 
culiar forms or rights of this or that government, its sub- 
jects require no control or power other than is sanction- 
ed by the great tribunal of nations. We turn, then, to 
the code international, where the purest morals, the high- 
est sense of justice, the most exalted principles of ethics, 
are the corner-stones, that we may learn to be guided in 
our duty to this prisoner. 

Grotius derived the jus gentium from the practice of 
nations ; and, living in an age when the greatest cruelties^ 
were practiced in the operations of warfare, his rules, as 
laid down, often seem to have been the inspiration of 
barbarity itself rather than law which should govern 
nations; yet even he, in Books three and four, insists 
that all acts of violence, which have no tendency to ob- 
tain justice or determinate the war, are at variance both 
with the duty of the Christian and with humanity it- 
self 

Manning, an author of great force and clearness, says, 
(p. 164), " At the present day a mild and humane treat- 
ment exists with regard to prisoners of war, which is, 



256 ANDERSON VILLE. 

perhaps, in some degree, attributable to tbe deference 
paid to the writing of Yattel, who appears to have been 
the first author who established the true principle upon 
which prisoners should be treated. He says that 'as 
soon as your enemy has laid down his arms and surren- 
dered his person, you have no longer any right over his 
life, unless he should give you such right by some new 
attempt, or had before committed against you a crime de- 
serving death.' ' Prisoners of war,' he says, ' may be se- 
cured, but can not be made slaves unless for personal 
guilt which, deserves death ; nor slain, unless we be per- 
fectly assured that our safety demands such a sacrifice.' " 

After having discussed at some length this subject, he 
sums up the whole question thus (p. 165) : 

"It may be remarked, in conclusion, that the same 
principles which have been appealed to in the preceding 
chapter afford also a clew to the right treatment of pris- 
oners of war. The usages of former ages proceeded upon 
the supposition that any violence was allowed in warfare, 
and that the right of the victor upon the vanquished 
was unlimited ; and that, having the right to deprive his 
antagonist of life, the captor had a right to impose any 
treatment more lenient than death upon his prisoner. 
But we have seen that, so far from the rights of the bel- 
ligerent being unlimited, the law of nature strictly limits 
them to such violence as is necessary ; that thus, when an 
antagonist no longer resists, there can be no longer any 
right to use violence toward him, and that whenever 
purposes of warfare are not frustrated by the granting of 
quarter, the belligerent can not refuse to give quarter 
without a direct violation of the law of nations, which 



ANDERSONVILLE. ' 257 

warrant no farther hardship toward prisoners than is re- 
quired bj the purpose of safe custody and security." 

Another author remarks : " Prisoners of war are in- 
deed sometimes killed; but this is not otherwise justifi- 
able than as it is made necessary either by themselves, if 
they make use of force against those who have taken 
them, or by others who make use of force in their behalf, 
and render it impossible to keep them ; and as we may 
collect from the reason of the thing, so it likewise ap- 
pears from common opinion, that nothing but the stron- 
gest necessity will justify such an act, for the civilized 
and thinking part of mankind will hardly be persuaded 
not to condemn it till they see the absolute necessity of 
it" (Rutherford's Institutes, p. 525). 

Kent, in speaking of the barbarous usages of war, 
kicked and done away with by the progress of civiliza- 
tion, says : 

"Public opinion, as it becomes enlightened and refined, 
condemns all cruelty, and all wanton destruction of life 
and property, as equally useless and injurious, and it con- 
trols the violence of war by the energy and severity of 
its approaches. Grotius," he says, ''even in opposition 
to many of his own authorities, and under a due sense 
of the obligations of religion and humanity, placed bounds 
to the ravages of war, and mentioned that many things 
were not fit and commendable though they might be 
strictly lawful, and that the law of nature forbade what 
the law of nations (meaning thereby the practices of na- 
tions) tolerated. Montesquieu," he says, "insisted that 
the laws of war give no other power over a captive than 
to keep him safely, and that all unnecessary rigor is 



258 ANDERSONVILLE. 

condemned by tlie reason and conscience of mankind. 
Yattel," he says, " has entered largely into the subject, 
and he argues, with great strength, and reason, and elo- 
quence against all unnecessary cruelty, all base revenge, 
and all mean and perfidious warfare; and he recom- 
mends his benevolent doctrine by the principles of ex- 
alted ethics and sound policy, and by illustrations drawn 
from the most pathetic and illustrious examples." 

To the same effect writes Wheaton (p. 586) and Hal- 
leck (p. 425 et sequitur). 

So strongly did the principles here laid down impress 
themselves upon our government, that, during General 
Jackson's administration, Mr. Livingston, then Secretary 
of State, instructed Mr. Buchanan, our minister in Kussia, 
to insert in the treaty proposed to be negotiated stipu- 
lations, " in order to restrain citizens or subjects of the 
one or the other of the high contracting parties respect- 
ively from infringing any of the known rules of modern 
warfare;" and, among other things, mentions, "for inju- 
ries offered to the bearers of flags of truce ; for the mas- 
sacre of prisoners who have surrendered ; for the mutila- 
tion of the dead ; for other breaches either of this treaty 
or of the laws of nations ; for preserving peace or lessen- 
ing the evils of war." 

The object of this, Mr. Livingston said, was "to ex- 
press a national reprobation of the doctrine which con- 
siders a state of war as one of declared hostilities between 
every individual of the belligerent nations respectively. 
. ... To massacre an unresisting and unarmed enemy, 
to poison his provisions and water, to assassinate a pris- 
oner, and other similar acts, are universally acknowledged 



ANDERSONVILLE. 259 

to be breaches of international law, and to justify retali- 
ation and an increase of the horrors of war" (Ex. Doc, 
JSTo. Ill, 1st Sess. 83d Congress, H. Eep.). 

It would seem that these teachings, so long recognized, 
so long practiced by civilized nations, ought to have 
found some advocate even among the councils of trea- 
son. Whatever the form of government may have been 
to which the leaders of the Confederacy so-called aspired, 
whatever of wrong and injustice they sought to embody 
in their system, with whatever of oppression and tyran- 
ny they might grind down their subjects, the moment 
they asked a place among nations they were bound to 
recognize and obey those laws international, which are, 
and of necessity must be, applicable alike to all. With 
what detestation, then, mi^st civilized nations regard that 
government whose conduct has been such as characterized 
this pretended Confederacy ? An ordinary comprehen- 
sion of natural right, the faintest desire to act on princi- 
ples of common justice, would have dictated some hu- 
mane action, would have extorted from some official a 
recognition of international rules of conduct. 

It was not retaliation, for they had the example of our 
government in sending to their homes on parole whole 
armies that had been captured ; it was not punishment, 
for these unfortunate prisoners had been taken in honor- 
able battle ; it was not ignorance of the law, for they had 
constantly with them all those great rights just quoted; 
and if these failed to convince, they could have found 
recorded back of these, '' If thine enemy hunger, feed 
him ;" and still farther back they might have found an 
example worthy of imitation which I can not refrain from 



260 ANDERSONVILLE. 

here giving. A large number of Syrians had been, by 
a cunning piece of strategy, taken captives, and became 
prisoners of war, whereupon the following dialogue oc- 
curred: "And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when 
he saw them, My father, shall I smite them ? shall I 
smite them ? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite 
them : wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken 
captive with thy sword and with thy bow ? Set bread 
and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and 
go to their master And he prepared great provisions 
for them ; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent 
them away, and they went to their master" (2 Kings, 
ch. vi.). 

No, gentlemen, it was neither retaliation, punishment, 
nor ignorance of the law ; it wj^s the intrinsic wickedness 
of a few desperate leaders, seconded by mercenary and 
heartless monsters, of whom the prisoner before you is a 
fair type. 

I have thus, without regard to the evidence under 
Charge First, presented the evidence under Charge Sec- 
\ ond as spread upon the record, showing that this ac- 

cused, while acting as commandant of the prison at An- 
dersonville, deliberately, wantonly, and maliciously de- 
stroyed the lives of eighteen prisoners of war in his cus- 
tody. I confess myself too much overcome with the 
melancholy details of this trial and its frightful disclo- 
sures to dwell longer on so sad a theme. 

If this accused still answer that, admitting the facts 
charged, he did these things in the exercise of authority 
lawfully conferred upon him, and that what he did was 
necessary to the discipline and safety of the prisoners, I 



ANDERSONVILLE. 261 

answer him in tlie language of Lord Mansfield in an im- 
portant case, 

"In trying the legality of acts done by military officers 
in the exercise of their duty, particularly beyond the 
seas, where cases may occur without the possibility of 
application for proper advice, great latitude ought to be 
allowed, and they ought not to suffer for a slip of form 
if their intention appears by the evidence to have been 
upright. It is the same as when complaints are brought 
against inferior civil magistrates, such as justices of the 
peace, for acts done by them in the exercise of their civil 
duty. There the principal inquiry to be made by a court 
of justice is lioio the heart stoodj and if there appear to be 
nothing wrong there, great latitude will be allowed for 
misapprehension or mistake. But, on the other hand, if 
the heart is wrong, if cruelty, malice, or oppression ap- 
pear to have occasioned or aggravated the imprisonment, 
or other injury complained of, they shall not cover them- 
selves with the thin vail of legal forms, or escape under 
the cover of justification the most technically regular 
from that punishment which it is your duty to inflict on 
so scandalous an abuse of public trust" (Wall vs. Mac- 
namara). 

Ma7j it please the Court^ — I have hastily analyzed and 
presented the evidence under Charge Second. If we had 
not traveled through the history of those long, weary 
months of suffering, torture, starvation, death, and be- 
come familiar with each day's roll of those who passed 
away, the mind could not contemplate this last though 
briefer roster of the dead without feelings of the utmost 
horror. Mortal man has never been called to answer be- 



262 ANDERSONVILLE. 

fore a legal tribunal to a catalogue of crime like this. 
One shudders at the fact, and almost doubts the age we 
live in. I would not harrow up your minds by dwelling 
farther upon this woeful record. The obligation you 
have taken constitutes you the sole judge of both law 
and fact. I pray you administer the one and decide the 
other, meting out to those involved in this crime of the 
universe all justice, without fear, favor, or partiality, and 
without regard to position, high or low, of those proved 
guilty. 



NOTE FROM THE JUDGE ADVOCATE. 

Washington, D.C. 
Ambrose Spencer, Esq., Americus, Ga. : 

Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of your note requesting for publication 
a copy of the argument submitted to the military court convened for the 
trial of Henry Wirz, and which you propose to incorporate in your "Nar- 
rative of Andersonville." 

Permit me to say, in cheerfully acceding to your request, and as a rea- 
son for so doing, the public have as yet but a very imperfect idea of rebel 
cruelties perpetrated at Andersonville, Ga. These can never be known 
entirely to those not sufferers ; but a grouping of the evidence, preserving 
the language of the witnesses as far as possible, will do much to correct 
as well as deepen the popular impression. The address asked by you is 
not so much an argument as it is an analysis of testimony, and for this 
reason, it is hoped, will contribute to the object of your book in the point 
mentioned. 

Again : "While the evidence adduced convicts Wirz of contributing di- 
rectly to the death of over ten thousand Union soldiers, and with his 
own hand and by his direct order committing thirteen individual mur- 
ders, the evidence also presents the horrible fact that he was but an in- 
strument in the hands of Jefferson Davis, James A. Seddon, and other 
prominent rebels ; and while Wirz suffered deservedly, there are those yet 
unpunished richly worthy an ignominious death. These are, some of 



ANDERSONVILLE. 263 

them, solemnly indicted by the commission who sentenced Wirz, and the 
paper you ask presents a part of the evidence upon which that indictment 
rests. 

Again ; If to convict Wirz of murder had been the only object, the 
court need not have sat a fortnight. As I conceived the purpose of the 
commission, however, a wider range of inquiry was intended, and hence 
the wearisome details of horror spread upon five thousand folios, implica- 
ting many, and presenting a continuous scene of suffering which Dante's 
Inferno nowhere equals. 

But for your book, the lessons of Andersonville would pass away and 
be forgotten. As I am informed, every effort to secure the publication 
of the record or the argument you now ask, either as a private enterprise 
or in any other way, has hitherto been unavailing. A copy of the argu- 
ment was made a part of the annual report of the Judge Advocate Gen- 
eral, and its publication, together with an abbreviation of the record, ur- 
gently recommended, yet it was omitted, through some influence, from 
the published report of that officer. In giving to the world this history, 
you are performing a duty which the country has failed to discharge, but 
which it owes to the survivors and the slain of Andersonville, while you 
are also erecting an enduring monument to the infamy of their murderers. 

If the paper asked can contribute to this end, you are at liberty to use 
it. 

You will remember that after the trial began I was ordered to strike 
from the charges the names of certain high rebel functionaries, and I was 
severely rebuked by the press. North and South, for presuming to connect 
these personages with the cruelties at Andersonville. I say to you now 
that those names were placed in the indictment upon evidence in my pos- 
session at the time, and (he finding of the court replacing them as con- 
spirators is my vindication. 

You will remember, too, that during the trial I was subjected to the 
most mendacious assaults by certain papers. North and South, for mani- 
festing undue zeal in the case and for other reasons. And especially was 
I denounced as *' unworthy my high office" for having expressed in open 
court the wish " that every man, woman, and child in the South had been 
vaccinated with poisonous matter and had died" — this in connection with 
the evidence touching Wirz's guilt in using poisonous vaccine matter. I 
hope I will be pardoned for this personal allusion ; but justice to myself 
and friends — many of whom were shocked to see such a monstrous senti- 



264 ANDERSONVILLE. 

ment attributed to me — demands that I deny squarely the infamous im- 
putation. I have the certificate of the whole court to its fabrication. 

I may have, and did, perhaps, prosecute the case with zeal. I felt the 
wrongs perpetrated upon Union prisoners — not more, however, than did 
some who were Wirz's associates. I would have been less than human 
and more than satanic to have gone through that trial with stoical indif- 
ference. I was warmed to unusual interest by taking the preliminary 
evidence, and confess to no abatement during the trial ; but so far from 
perverting or abusing my position, or exhibiting such a spirit as was 
charged by the slanderous statements above, the record is full of acknowl- 
edgments, both from the prisoner and his counsel, of my uniform fairness 
and professional courtesy. 

Believing that your book will have a historic value in perpetuating 

the proofs of guilt, and at the same time will absolve the mass of the 

South from a participation in one of the most stupendous crimes of which 

any age and any time furnishes a record, I wish it and you every success. 

Very truly your friend, 

N. P, Chipman. 



ANDEKSONVILLE. 265 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

The Findings of the Court. — Notice of the Argument. — Order of the 
President of the United States. — The Murderer's Fate. — Tables of 
Mortality. 

The argument of the judge advocate, Colonel IST. P. 
Chipman, as here introduced, pays but a poor compli- 
ment to the intellectual ability or legal talent displayed in 
its preparation. The author has assumed a liberty that 
admits of but one apology — insufficient for the advocate, 
he is willing to acknowledge — the want of space to give 
the whole. In curtailing it, however, he has omitted 
nothing except what is contained in the Narrative, a rep- 
etition of which might weary the already tired attention 
of the reader. 

It may not be improper to say that the effort was pro- 
nounced by competent judges one of the ablest that has 
been given by an officer of the government since the com- 
mencement of the rebellion, in any case arising from it. 

The portions omitted were only abstracts of the evi- 
dence given at the trial of Wirz, and which, if introduced, 
would only recall what has been recited. The legal 
points have been retained as delivered. These will de- 
mand the careful consideration of those who question 
either the right or the power of government to punish 
men who have placed themselves under the control of 
military law by the operation of that law. The argu- 

M 



266 ANDERSONVILLE. 

ment upon the jurisdiction of the court removes any 
doubts that may have been entertained as to its powers. 

" Oeneral Court-martial. — Orders No. 607. 

"War Department, Adjutant General's Office, "> 
Washington, November 6, 1 865. > 

"Before a Military Commission which convened at 
"Washington, D. C, August 23, 1865, pursuant to para- 
graph 3, Special Orders No. 453, dated August 23, 1865, 
and paragraph 13, Special Orders No. 524, dated Octo- 
ber 2, 1865, "War Department, Adjutant Greneral's Office, 
Washington, and of which Major General Lewis Wallace, 
United States Yolunteers, is President, was arraigned and 
tried Henry Wirz. 

" Finding. — The Commission, having maturely consid- 
ered the evidence adduced, find the accused, Henry Wirz, 
as follows : 

'' Of the specification to Charge I., ' Guilty,' after 
amending said specification to read as follows : In this, 
that he, the said Henry Wirz, did combine, confederate, 
and conspire with them, the said Jefferson Davis, James A. 
Seddon, Howell Cobb, John H. Winder, Eichard B. Win- 
der, Isaiah H. White, W. S. Winder, W. Shelby Eeed, K. 
E. Stevenson, S. P. Moore, Kerr, late hospital stew- 
ard at Andersonville, James Duncan, Wesley W. Turner, 
Benjamin Plarris, and others, whose names are unknown, 
citizens of the United States aforesaid, and who were 
then engaged in armed rebellion against the United 
States, maliciously, traitorously, and in violation of the 
laws of war, to impair and injure the health, and to de- 
stroy the lives — by subjecting to torture and great suffer- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 267 

ing, by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quar- 
ters, by exposing to the inclemency of winter and to the 
dews and burning sun of summer, by compelling the use 
of impure water, and by furnishing insufiicient and un- 
wholesome food — of large numbers of Federal prisoners, 
to wit, the number of about forty -five thousand soldiers 
in the military service of the United States of America, 
held as prisoners of war at Anderson ville, in the State of 
Georgia, within the lines of the so-called Confederate 
States, on or before the 27th day of March, A.D. 1864, 
and at divers times between that day and the 10th day 
of April, A.D. 1865, to the end that the armies of the 
United States might be weakened and impaired, and the 
insurgents engaged in armed rebellion against the United 
States might be aided and comforted. 
"Of Charge!., 'Guilty.' 
" Of Specification first to Charge II., ' GuiLTY." 
'' Of Specification second to Charge II., ' Guilty.' 
" Of Specification third to Charge II., ' Guilty.' 
" Of Specification four to Charge II., ^Not Guilty.^ 
" Of Specification five to Charge II, ' Guilty.' 
'• Of Specification six to Charge II., ' Guilty.' 
" Of Specification seven to Charge II., ' Guilty.' 
"Of Specifications eight and nine to Charge II., 
* Guilty.' 

" Of Specification ten to Charge II., ^Not Guilty.^ 
" Of Specification eleven to Charge II., ' Guilty.' 
" Of Specification twelve to Charge IL, ' Guilty.' 
" Of Specification thirteen to Charge II., ^ Not Guilty.^ 
"Of Charge II.,' Guilty.' 
" Sentence. — And the Commission does therefore sen- 



268 ANDERSONVILLE. 

tence him, the said Henrj Wirz, ' to be hanged by the 
neck till he be dead, at such time and place as the Presi- 
dent of the United States may direct, two thirds of the 
court concurring therein.' 

"11. The proceedings, findings, and sentence in the 
foregoing case having been submitted to the President 
of the United States, the following are his orders : 

" 'Executive Mansion, November 3, 1865. 
" ' The proceedings, findings, and sentence of the court 
in the within case are approved, and it is ordered that 
the sentence be carried into execution by the officer com- 
manding the Department of Washington on Friday, the 
10th day of November, 1865, between the hours of 6 
o'clock A.M. and 12 o'clock noon. 



" 'Andrew Johnson, President.' 



*' III. Major General C. C. Augur, commanding the De- 
partment of Washington, is commanded to cause the fore- 
going sentence in the case of Henry Wirz to be duly ex- 
ecuted in accordance with the President's order. 

"lY. The Military Commission, of which Major Gen- 
eral Lewis Wallace, United States Volunteers, is Presi- 
dent, is hereby dissolved. 

"By command of the President of the United States. 
"E. D. TowNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General." 

On the 10th of November, 1865, Henry Wirz suffered 
the penalty due to his crimes at Andersonville. 

The expiation thus made does not necessarily shield 
the character of the jailer of that prison from investiga- 



ANDERSONVILLE. 269 

tion and censure, but it would be ascribing too great im- 
portance to his name or position to dwell upon it at great- 
er length than has been already done. Above his igno- 
minious grave will ever float the remembrance of his 
thousand crimes, to mark the resting-place of a willing 
tool and murderer, while his memory will be handed 
down pre-eminent among the bad men of the world, but 
especially notorious as the Jailer of Andersonville. 



270 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



Exkihi 


tfrom Hospital Register, 


Andersonville Prison Records. 


Whole Num- 
ber of Deaths 
as shown by- 
Hospital Keg- 
ister. 


Total Num- 
ber of Deaths 
in Hospital. 


Total Num- 
ber of Deaths 
in Stockade. 


Cases re- 
turned from 
Hospital to 

Stockade. 


Per Cent of 
Deaths to 

Number ad- 
mitted to 
Hospital. 


Proportion of 

Deaths for 
each Month of 
tHfe 13 during 
which the Pris- 
on existed. 


12,462 


8735 


3727 


3469 


69if 


958 



Diseases and Nttmher of Deaths resulting from each Disease. 



Diarrhoea 

Scurvy 

Dysentery 

Unknown 

Anasarca (General Drop-) 

sy) ^ 

Typhoid Fever 

Pneumonia 

Debility 

Intermittent and llemit-> 

tent Fever > 

Gun-shot Wounds 

Pleurisy 

Bronchitis 

Rheumatism 

Varioloid 

Catarrh 

Ulcers 

Phthisis 

Ascites, or Abdominal) 

Dropsy j 

Erysipelas 

Syphilis 

Asphyxia 

Jaundice 

Wounds 



3952 
3574 
1648 
1268 

377 

229 
221 
198 

177 

149 
109 
93 
83 
63 
55 
51 
36 

24 

11 

7 
7 
6 
6 



Constipation 

Ophthalmia (Eye) 

Nephritis (Kidneys) 

Vaccine Ulcers 

Laryngitis (Throat) 

Icterus (Liver) 

Ictus Solis (Sun-stroke)... 

Diphtheria 

Asthma 

Scrofula 

Gonorrhoea 

Dyspepsia 

Home Sickness 

Fistula 

Diabetes 

Measles 

Paralysis 

Fever and Ague 

Hydrocele, or Dropsy of \ 

Testicles j 

Consumption 

Hemorrhoids (Piles) 

Fracture 

Stricture 

Gangrene 

Total 



63 



12,462 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



271 





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272 



ANDERSONVILLE. 



The following Table j compiled froyn Official Records, gives the Number of 
British Soldiers killed in Action, or who perished from Wounds. 



Years. 


Battles. 


Total Strength 
engaged. 


Estimated 
Deaths. 


1809 
1811 
1812 
1813 

1815 \ 

1854 
1815 




22,100 

9,000 

30,500 

I 49,900 

6,000 


1,445 

1,358 

770 

3,245 

4,595 
625 


Albuera 

Salamanca 

Vittoria 

Ligny 

Quatre Bras 


Waterloo 


Wavre 

Crimea 

New Orleans 




Total nnmbfir of deaths from wounds 12.928 1 






7 " 1 



The official records of the British army show that but 
2755 men and officers were killed in action during the 
whole Crimean War. 



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